The Lost Girl
by Elsa007
Summary: AU-no curse. Princess Emma is kidnapped and David and Queen hire a certain Pirate to bring her home. Getting to the Princess doesn't pose a challenge to Captain Hook but the adventures they face upon bringing her back are a bit more perilous. Captain Swan/Lieutenant Duckling (or as I like to say-Captain Duckling) Enjoy! (Sorry - 1st few chap. are..bad stick with it for a bit.)
1. Hiring a Pirate

**Prologue**

"Charming, what are we going to do?" Snow asked her husband, throwing herself in his arms, tears streaming down her cheeks. He held her, no less upset or anxious. "The navy hasn't come up with anything and she's been gone for weeks!"

"I think we need to get some outside help." He finally said after a long pause.

"What do you mean?"

"The naval commander knows of a man who might be able to do a little more."

"Who? Why haven't we sent him yet?"

"Well, it's because he's not necessarily…" The King trailed off.

"Not necessarily what, David? Our daughter's been kidnapped by a magical teenager who was after our son! I don't care if he doesn't work for us-Hire him!"

"Snow he's a pirate."

"A pirate?" She finally asked curiously.

"Yes a pirate captain. Captain Hook."

**Chapter 1**

"Give me the bean, boy." The pirate captain snarled angrily.

"Please sir! It's all I have! I traded our cow for these beans!"

"Yes and now I'm trading you! You give me two of those beans and I let you live! That sounds like a good deal for both of us!" I knew where the princess was. The description of her captor made that fairly obvious. Not that it was a place I rather wanted to return, but I had made a deal with the King. Bring back their daughter and they'd tell me where they were locking up the Dark One. I would go to the end of every world to find her at that price. This boy had accidentally bought a handle of magical beans. How did you trade a skinny, underfed cow and end up with a handful of magic beans? He must have been the luckiest son of a bitch ever to walk the earth.

He called himself Jack but between the beans, the giant beanstalk and the name all I could think of was Jac the Giant Killer.

"I only have one left! I will give it to you but please! Don't kill me! I swear! I only have one left!" I could see the truth in his eyes so I pulled my hook back from his throat.

"Very well boy. Give me the bean."

Two hours later I was preparing my ship for the voyage ahead of us. My old crew was back together and I was buying as much rum as I could fit on this ship before we sunk from the weight. If I was going back I needed a little something to help me through it all. I hated that place. I hated that boy. And I hated the princess for making me face both.

How stupid did she have to be to get kidnapped by a person obsessed with finding lost _boys_? He had never taken a girl in all my years of knowing him. She had to be an idiot. And now because of her idiocy, I was about to venture back to the worst part of my life, to the most miserable place on the planet, to see a boy who was a monster about a girl I had never met but still hated just to exact my revenge. The sappy King had better follow through on delivering the Dark One to me.

After all, I was going to Neverland for him.


	2. Here be Mermaids

**A/N: Hello lovelies! So I completely forgot this fic existed but I reread my summary and I am feeling it! I will get some more up here soon! Thanks for sticking with me and thank you to my new readers who have just discovered this! Please please please review! Tell me what you like, what you hate-everything! I love hearing from you all!**

Here we were. Neverland. I swore to never return and yet, here I was. It was almost as though I had never left.

No. That wasn't true. I couldn't begin to think like that. I was closer, so very much closer to finding the Dark One than I had ever been. Find a Princess, find a way off this Godforsaken Island, get the idiot girl back to her family and the Dark One was mine. Locked in a cage. Defenseless. As my hook found his cold, black heart.

"Steady men!" I called out. Returning to this place was affecting them, too. They could feel the cold, suffocating magic creeping a hand around their hearts. Only my most loyal followed me back. Several of my men had refused to return. I didn't blame them. How could I? It had been hundreds of years since their king had betrayed them. Hundreds of years since their beloved Captain had been murdered by magic and trickery. Hundreds of years since their friend and shipmate had been killed by a Crocodile. Some of them preferred to live in safety, peace and preferred to go on living their lives without returning to hell for vengeance on those who were hundreds of years gone. But it wasn't like that for me. It felt like yesterday King George had caused my brother's death. And it felt like no time at all since I watched the life drain from my beloved's eyes as her husband crushed her heart, her beautiful, loving caring heart to dust. The heart who could love a broken pirate. There was but one heart like that in the world. I would never find another who could love a broken, twisted man like me. And I needed revenge before I let myself go on and be with my Milah.

"Captain!" Smee's voice called through the galley. "Mermaid approaching!" I ran to the starboard side and looked out into the dark, dusky waves. The green tail flipped quickly, cutting through the water as if it were nothing. Headed straight towards us. Was she planning to attack? What on earth was happening?! Usually the mermaids tried to lure ships like ours into rocky shores and wreck us on the reefs and rocks unless they sensed mass discord on decks that they could sing into a storm. There was no discord here! I had warned them! No fighting on my ship in Neverland! The mermaid reached our deck and poked her head above the surface.

"Captain Hook?" Her soft, playful voice called out.

"Aye?" I asked.

"I've a message from Kind David and Queen Snow White." Okay, that was a new one."

"Sorry?!"

"May I come aboard?" She asked sweetly.

"Again, _sorry?!"_

"I can ditch the tail and we can speak face to face, it may be easier than you bending over the edge of your ship like that and me craning my neck like this."

"Er, alright, I suppose?"

"Great! Would you maybe throw down a rope?" I nodded at Smee who called out the command to my crew. The rope was lowered next to the maiden who twisted a shell bracelet around her wrist. As my men pulled on the rope I gasped. She was raising in the air and I could actually watch as her tail turned to legs. Very, very attractive legs. I have grinned. A mermaid. That would be new. I could add 'mermaid' to my list. I'd have a better bar stories than any sailor could rightfully claim. As she got on deck I smiled dashingly and bowed, bringing her hand to my lips for a soft, lingering kiss.

"My Lady of the Waves. It is an honor. Shall we have dinner in my quarters where we may discuss your message?"


	3. I Need a Hero

**A/N: Short and sweet. I'll update again soon! Review please! Pretty please!**

"And how's my little Princess doing today?" The blonde idiot leered down at me. He had come in the night, with a horde of boys surrounding me and taking me away, flying through the night over the trees and rivers and over my kingdom, taking me up, higher and higher into the sky until we passed the clouds. Until we flew through the stars. To this disgusting island. Where he was King. And where he leered at me in a cage. "I'm sick of waiting so I'm just going to ask." He interrupted my thoughts. "You don't happen to be pregnant already are you?"

"I'm sorry, _what?!"_ I spat my words out at him through the wooden bars on my cage.

"I'm simply asking because I need your first born and if you were already pregnant than we could simply speed that process along." He said, as though it was the most normal thing in the world. "There was supposed to be a curse. The curse would have brought you to the son of Dark Magic. You, the daughter of light magic, the daughter of true love would have then conceived the son of Darkness's child and that child would have saved me. But the curse never came. The women who cast it fell in love and lost her edge." He had to be talking about Grandma Regina. She had been planning some sort of curse when a thief broke into the castle. My Grandpa Robin. They lived with us now. She was good now. I had heard that she was once known as the Evil Queen but ferocious as she was I couldn't see her as Evil. Uncle Roland always told me stories about a curse she had been planning. A curse that would have kept them all young while I grew old. So old that I would be the adult and he, the child. I had laughed at him. Roland as a child? Ridiculous. I had always laughed off the idea of Regina cursing us all as well but evidently that was also true. "Anyway if you're pregnant let me know. If not, well then. We'll have to do something about that." I pulled my legs to my chest. What? He didn't mean what I thought he meant. Did he? I shivered.

"I'm not pregnant." I finally admitted. He nodded.

"I figured as much. Well, don't worry. I can speed up the whole process and we can get this ordeal done with sooner rather than later." I backed to the corner of my cage.

He turned around and pranced off as though he hadn't just terrified and warned me of his potential to ruin my life. More than he already had. I always thought that if I were ever in trouble I could be my own hero. I wanted to be like Mom's friend Aurora's girlfriend who walked around like she owned the place and no one doubted she could save herself. I wanted to be like Princess Belle, who went hunting a Yaogui on her own. I wanted to be like my mom who went out on her own and saved her kingdom. I never needed a prince to save me. Never wanted one. But I couldn't get out of this mess. I was locked in by magic. I had tried to get out for two days straight and I hadn't even chipped the bars. I needed someone else. And it tore me up inside that when it truly mattered, I needed help. I closed my eyes and prayed for a miracle. A rescuer. A hero.

**I hope you are all enjoying this fic! I certainly am enjoying writing it!**

**Please please please review! I'd love to hear what you all think and what you want to happen?**


	4. Journey into the Jungle

"Tink." I whispered softly, knowing that despite my volume or lack thereof she could hear me. Wherever she was on this Island she could hear me. All I had to do now was wait. And wait. Sure enough, not 10 minutes later the telltale rustling of the leaves echoed out onto the beach. The blonde fairy stepped out and glared at me.

"What in the hell," She began walking towards me glaring, "are you doing here?" her voice was as close to a growl as possible for such a small woman. "You left. You had a bean and you got out. Why would you come back?"

"What can I say, I missed you Tink." I winked. "You wouldn't believe what a flash of green eyes and a swish of blonde hair can make a man do." Slap.

"Yeah right. You're still lovesick over your true love."

"Low blow, Tink." I warned. She softened.

"I'm sorry, Hook. You're right. I thought I had seen the last of you. You discovered how to kill your enemy, you escaped Neverland. Why on earth would you return?"

"The King and Queen in the realm where the Crocodile resides have him locked up. And they won't tell me where. No one else knows. It impenetrable. It is impossible for him to escape. Pan has kidnapped the daughter of the King and Queen. Their troops have been," I swallowed, trying to calm myself. "Unsuccessful thus far. If I bring back their daughter they will allow me to visit The Dark One. And I shall be able to kill him."

"You will get your revenge." She said simply. I nodded. "Emma never said she was a Princess." My head shot up and I stared at her.

"You've seen her. You know where she is."

"She's in a cage. Near the Shadow Caves." I pulled Tink forward and hugged her, lifting her off the ground and I kissed her check.

"You are a gem." I said, adjusting my satchel and getting ready to forge into the trees. "Maybe before I go I can," I winked. "Thank you properly." She rolled her eyes.

"Go before he realizes you're here." I nodded and marched ahead. Into the woods again. I was close. I could easily take her, leave Neverland, and get back to the castle. I was so close. Closer than I'd ever been. I could see the Crocodile's blood dripping down my hands; I could see his life leave his eyes forever. All that stood between me and that wonderfully beautiful moment was this jungle.

This long, never ending, hot, disgusting jungle.

Hours past. I was nearing the Shadow Caves but I was losing hope. This was too easy. Far, far too easy.

"Look whose back." There it was. The voice I had been dreading. The voice that haunted my men's dreams. The voice that had a childish sort of confidence.

"Pan." I said simply. "Let's not fight. I just want the girl. If I have the girl I can kill Rumplestiltskin. You hated him too last time I heard. It's a good situation for both of us. You have no reason to keep some girl. Let's make a trade." The boy laughed. It was a chilling sound that made me shake unconsciously.

"Not a chance, pirate. She's mine." He snickered. "Get lost, Pirate." I blinked and when my eyes opened he was nowhere to be found. Neither were the caves. Dear Lord, I was in a completely different place than when I started out. He had moved me. I was actually lost. I hated that idiot child. Pulling out my compass I sighed and redirected myself. Onwards.

Hours later the sun was shining down directly. I was in a large clearing and making my way through towards my prize. I was hot. Sweaty. This Neverland jungle was probably going to give me heat stroke if I didn't get to shade soon. Why that buffoon didn't just give her up right away was beyond me. He only ever took boys! Why did he want her? Unless he finally _was_ growing up and needed her for…I quickened my pace. The King wouldn't likely be terribly forgiving if his daughter returned to him more of a lady and less of a girl than she had been when she left. Oh boy. I broke into a jog and slashed angrily at the vines before me. I needed to get to this Princess.

**A/N: Hello lovelies! Thank you so much for sticking with me on this story! This one is really hitting me somewhere and I am really enjoying writing it. I have a path and a place I definitely want to get to but I have a few options as far as the path to get there goes so please review! Tell me what you want to see and tell me what you think about the writing! I love critiques-the good the bad and the ugly. Let me know! ~E**


	5. A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

**Emma**

I needed to get out of here. And I couldn't just sit here and wait for some hero to show up on an island in the stars. How would my parents even know where I was? And they couldn't fly just up and fly here! I doubted Regina could transport herself between realms and this was most certainly a different realm. So I had to get out of this cage. I had to find a place to hide myself and I had to find a way to survive until I could figure out how to get off of this island. There was that fairy I had seen earlier. She thought she was hidden with magic but Regina had taught me to spot magic a mile away and Blue had shown me the difference between Regina's magic and fairy magic. Fairy Magic had crept into camp and looked at me. She had gotten a good look and crept back out, stealing Blondie's left shoe for no apparent reason. Later when he rampaged around the camp for an hour looking for it in anger I realized that it was nothing more than a harmless prank, especially when the shoe reappeared just where he had left it and Felix had attempted to convince him that maybe it was there the whole time. She was messing with him. His magic must have been too strong for her, she could never take him and all these Lost Boys on, but she could make him angry and upset him. I already liked this fairy. Her magic had a green tint to it, just like Blue's magic had an edging of periwinkle. I had taken to calling her Green in my head. I only hoped to God that I wasn't going crazy and imagining the whole thing.

This cage was magic. I tried to remember what Regina had told me about dealing with magical objects. I could wish on a star. I could trade the magic for something it wanted. But how did you know what a magical object wanted.

_"Your secrets."_ A breath of wind washed over me and the words were in my ears as clearly as the buzz of the annoying bugs that flew around my head at night. _"Tell me your deepest secrets."_ I shivered. My deepest darkest secret? A thought came into my head with an answer but I pushed it further down. Not that. I would never think of that again. The air was still again. The voices were gone. Maybe I had imagined the whole thing. I knew in my heart that I had not, that it was real, that _that_ was how I could escape. But I couldn't handle that right now. I couldn't say that secret out loud. Not now. Not yet. For now I would just have to deal with Blondie and all of his little boyfriends. Perhaps the fairy would be back tomorrow. I curled up in the corner of my cage. I needed sleep. I needed to forget these things ever happened. I needed to dream that I was in my bed back at home, reading my favorite book and only a hallway away from my family.

But of course, we don't always get what we want. So instead I dreamt I was sailing across the sky in a great big ship. It was a beautiful vessel. And there was a man behind me, at the helm. I couldn't quite make out his face but I seemed to trust him. And the sky was beautiful! Bright with stars and alive with magic. Not Regina's kind of magic, but the magic that exists in every world. The magic that exists because something is incredible and amazing and there's nothing like it. I was sailing through the sky! Having an adventure! And it was the most wonderful dream my mind could have come up with.

**A/N: How are you enjoying this fic? please please pretty please REVIEW! ~E**


	6. The Story Commences

**Hello lovely readers! The hiatus is ending! I am working on some HUGE AMAZING AND SUPER LONG chapters to welcome us all back to the stories however first I will include a summary of what has occurred so far in order to catch us all up and a short chapter with new content to keep you going until I update more thoroughly. I am in the middle of 8 fics right now in 5 different fandoms so the process of writing new content for all of them will take a bit. I beg of you all to be patient with me!**

_A summary of events so far: No Curse. Regina found Robin and fell in love, effectively mending her broken heart, forgives Snow, (Snow forgives her back) and they move on, trying to make a family for themselves and a proper kingdom for their people. Because of this, Henry is never born and Pan has realized that without that child he will die and/or grow old. His solution? Kidnap the mother of the child with the heart of the truest believer and somehow get her to conceive that oh so special young boy…yeah. This fic went there. Sorry. But anyway-Pan kidnaps the Princess Emma and David and Snow are frustrated by the unsuccessfulness of their armed forces to they hire a certain pirate captain to go bring her home. He has agreed, as they have locked up the Dark One and will not say where but have promised to give him an audience with Rumpelstiltskin as soon as their daughter is returned to them. Hook gets to Neverland and is greeted by Ariel who has swum between realms to give him a message from David and Snow. You lot do now know what the message was. Haha-I'm evil I know. Emma is trapped in the Shadow Caves and Pan keeps asking if she's pregnant. She finally admits she isn't and begins plotting on how she will get out of the cage. She begins to feel hopeless and even though she wants to be her own hero, even though she wants to be a strong, independent princess (who don't need no man) she is terrified as to what Pan (whom she refers to as Blondie because she doesn't know his name) will do to her, so she prays from a hero to come save her. Back to Hook's story-he asks Tink to help and flirts with her as he is wont to do. She ignores the flirtation but tells him where Emma is. Pan magically moves Hook to a different part of the island as soon as he gets close to Emma but he is determined to find her so he forages on, plotting and planning, how to get off Neverland as soon as he has the princess. Back in her cage, Emma has a (rather significant) dream about sailing a ship through the sky and the stars with a faceless man who she has the distinct feeling that she trusts. She has realized that the cage is magic and is trying to figure out what price the magic wants for her release. She gets a feeling that it is her secrets but ignore is and tries to figure out any sort of escape plan. _**Reminder: There is a reason this story is marked M. There will be some romance in future chapters but there will also be some violence in the chapters occurring more presently. In particular there is a rape scene in the chapter after this one that may or may not be successful. If you would rather not read that section, Message me and I can send you a much more K rated summary of the events that will get you to the next chapter with no confusion. (I will remind you of this offer before you read the explicit scene.) **_The story commences thusly:_

**Emma's Point of View**

"Your secrets." The wind was back, whispering the same, haunting words. "Tell me your deepest secrets." I shivered. I pushed down the answer to the barely spoken question and ignored the voice pointedly. What on earth was that? I was a princess of the realm. I didn't have secrets. None that were worth anyone's time and none that were really applicable to this situation surely.

"Did you miss me?" Damn. Blondie was back. "Come on, darling, I know you missed me. Why wouldn't you? I'm fantastic. Let me get straight to the point. Your firstborn is very important to me. You see that child will have the Heart of the Truest believer, it has been widely prophesized and even though things were _supposed_ to go a different way, the prophesy still stands and my eternal life can go on as planned. Oh. Maybe I didn't mention, I need that heart in order to keep on being all young and cute and living forever as planned. So you, my dear. Need to get pregnant. And I, my lovely little princess, will speed the process up so that I can have my baby and you can go on your merry way." The creep smiled creepily. "If you can figure out how to get off my island anyway." I didn't want to think about what he had just said, I couldn't dwell on my panic or terror right now, I needed to think like a hero. I needed to plan an escape for me and apparently a bundle of unwanted, terrifying joy.

"Do you promise?" I asked.

"What?"

"Do you promise? After you've done these horrible things, if I figure out a way off this island, will you let me and whomever I choose to take with me off the island?" He frowned, clearly thinking I meant my as of yet unborn and as of yet, unconceived child.

"The green fairy, for example. If she wants to leave with me when I've discovered a way off your hellish torture chamber, can she leave with me? Can I take the lost boys who want to go, home with me?" Blondie's brow furrowed at that latest piece. He loved his lost boys. Or at the very least loved their presence and devotion.

"Green is free to go with you." He counter offered. "_If_ you find a way." So there was a way off. If there hadn't been a way off at all he would have had no qualms about offering the safe journey of his lost boys to the mix knowing that I'd never succeed anyway. "There are other stragglers on the island as well, like the fairies. They too can follow you home."

"And the Lost Boys?" his frown deepened.

"They don't want to leave. No home for them, anywhere else."

"If they don't want to leave, then what's the problem giving me permission to ask them along."

"You're way too far ahead of yourself. You aren't going to find a way off my island." His frown turned into a maniac smile. "Besides, why would I grant you these wishes, you don't have anything to offer me in return. I don't need your permission to carry through my plan. If I were the kind of person who followed the rules, who asked a ladies permission, do you really think I would have kidnapped you? Of course not. I would have gone on, growing older and dying. Already I have begun to grow and it is unacceptable. A few years ago, I was a boy of fourteen, but now my features have changed, I have grown a few inches and I have," he paused, thinking for a moment. "Reprioritized the actions I enjoy in my free time." What in the hell did that mean? "I have grown older, and while I enjoy this version of me, I guess myself to be almost 18 now, and I do not wish to move on past this age. Being an adult would be intolerable. So I must stop my aging before I reach that age. It was after this point in my earlier life that things grew ever more complicated, ever more difficult, ever more infuriatingly horrible!" His fist hit the top of my cage and I jumped back, startled. "You, my dear Emma, are also reaching your 18th birthday. And it would be best if this process were finished before then." He smiled. "What say you, Princess? Are you ready to be a mother?" I paled. He was serious. And he meant to do something quite imminently. My resolve at staying anxiety free was wearing down. What would a hero do in this situation? What could I do? I hadn't the slightest idea. And I was growing more and more scared by the minute. How the hell did I get out of here? How the hell did I save myself? I had always dreamed of the chance to be a hero, the chance to show that I could do the impossible and prove myself worthy of my family. And here it was, here was my opportunity, but I had spent so much time dreaming, that I hadn't had any practice doing. And so here I was, terrified, alone and in desperate need of heroic actions, without the slightest idea of how to be what I always dreamed I could be. And with that, a tear fell down my cheek and hit the ground below me.

**So that summary was pretty long. Sorry bout that. But hopefully the new content will make up for it! I will be writing more on this fic soon as promised, I have a few ideas that I am playing with on where to proceed from and hopefully you will love the direction I choose! Hugs and kisses and lots of love to all my lovely readers~E**

**PS-remember-reviews are love, the stories with more reviews get priority when I choose which fic I'll work on next. Please pretty please let me know what you love and what you hate about my fic! Reviews don't have to be all happy and positive! If you find a mistake or something that pisses you off-TELL ME! I want to improve my writing so criticisms are very much appreciated! XOXO~E**


	7. Crying for a Pirate

**Let us be frank, dear readers. As much as this story means to me it is not turning out as I wished. My writing is subpar in this and I just can't seem to get the words out. I apologize for the choppiness of my prose and for how it sort of jumps around. There is little to no character developement because in my head they are already so well developed that I am struggling writing it in. I will work on this for future chapters but I already feel so bad about how long its been between updates that I needed to post SOMETHING...I will continue to slave away at this fic and hopefully the next chapter will come sooner and better than this did. Please review! IF you have theories, ideas, opinions on ANYTHING! I want to hear it! Reviews are love and I love you so please love me back;) ~ XOXO E**

Crying. Dear gods of sea and sky, there wasn't anything I hated more than crying. Particularly _women_ crying. Why did they do that? I knew better than anyone what good shedding a bit of salt water back to the ocean could do in the privacy of night. I knew how salt water in one form or another could bring peace to the soul. But when women cried it wasn't simply the release of pent up emotions. It was the most heart wrenching thing a man could witness. It was a curse, the worst of all curses that watching tears run down smooth cheeks, hearing soft sobs escape pinked lips was the great and terrible Captain Hook's weakness. But it was that. And the relief at finding the Princess alive was wholly ruined by seeing her cry. Yes she was in a cage in some dirt on a twisted and terrible island, but by the looks of things, she was unharmed. There was food and water before her and the blond demon was nowhere to be found. But of course, she was a princess. So anything less than exorbitant comfort was something to cry over, I supposed. I rolled my eyes. The return journey was going to be a nightmare in itself if she was going to cry over discomfort. The cabin that had been prepared for her was one of the nicest on the Jolly Roger but that wasn't saying much. Granted, I could have given her my quarters. But the last female to enter those chambers was Milah. Still smelled softly of her, all these years later. Part of the magic of the ship, I suppose. I didn't want to risk the chance that letting this princess in would chase away that peaceful scent, filled with lost love and the promise of revenge.

I double checked the perimeter around the cage settled lowly in the dirt and found only one guard lazily traipsing around. I made quick work of him, introducing the boy to the scent of sleeping powder, before stealing past him to the girl. "Psst. Princess." I hissed at her. The girl's head shot up with a snap and I found myself staring into a pair of intense green eyes.

"Who are you? Are you the one he's sent to…" She trailed off nervously, backing quickly into the far end of her cage. "Come near me and I swear you'll regret it." I examined the ropes holding the cage together, ignoring her.

"I don't know what you're talking about and to be perfectly frank, love, I don't really care. Your parents are paying me a hefty sum to get you back to them and I plan on making short work of it. Problem with that, you'll have to take it up with their high horsed and mighty majesties."

"My parents sent you?" She sneered at me and stayed put in her far corner. "Why should I believe you?" I smiled grimly at the ropes, finally figuring out the trick to them.

"Because your alternative is to stay here and face whatever nonsense you seem so petrified of." I glanced up at her, slightly surprised to see her appraising me carefully. "What?"

"You look familiar. Have I met you?"

"Unlikely." I held out my appendage. "But perhaps you've heard of me. Captain Hook." She let out a mocking laugh that made me clench my jaw.

"Because that's not a stupid name."

"I beg your pardon!" I drew back, affronted. No one dared mock Captain Hook! "I'm trying to save your life!"

"Doesn't make your name any less stupid. And to be perfectly frank, love," she drew out the words in what I could only assume was her attempting to mimic my accent. "Your attempts at saving me don't seem particularly effective." I furrowed my brow at the wench. Princess or not this lass was rude beyond belief. She had absolutely no respect and didn't even seem grateful at her rescue. Fine. If that was the way she wanted it, that was the way she would have it.

"This is a secret cave, lass. Born from the vines that grow around the Echo Caves. In order to escape, one must tell the cage one's deepest, darkest secret." She shivered visibly at this, the words clearly affecting her more than I'd have imagined. "Well don't think about it all day, love. Out with it so we can get home."


	8. Her Secret

"Come on, lass. What are you waiting for?" he repeated, staring at me expectantly. "Spill it. It's only you and me and the great outdoors. No one else ever has to know." Still I sat in silence, almost shaking in fear. "On the other hand the blonde demon may be back at any moment." I shivered, remembering what he had threatened. If I had any hope of escaping that fate, this was it. But to face that truth? Unbearable! I was shivering visibly now and the pirate knelt down to my level. I expected soft, comforting words but instead found myself staring into cold, dark eyes and listening to a voice filled with ice. "Princess, all due respect, but you have spent your life in an ivory tower. You've had everything you've ever desired. But if you don't do this soon, you will die. I may die. And I have been living far too long to just die now because some spoiled child can't fess up to the time she broke her mother's vase. If you keep stalling and this goes badly for us, you will regret it. I promise you that."

"I don't want to say it." I admitted softly. He rolled his eyes.

"She speaks. Finally. Now try your deepest secret." I didn't say a word. He held out his left arm and the sun glinted off the hook he had in place of a hand. "This hook, lass, is sharper than you think. It would take only a flick of my wrist to split your pretty skin."

"If you're here to save me, why would you kill me?" I asked. He narrowed his eyes, the side of his lips turning up in a smirk.

"There are a lot of places to cut that wouldn't kill you, love. Just hurt like hell." He was serious. I could see in his eyes that if I cost him anything he wouldn't hesitate to give some sort of retribution.

"You won't tell anyone? Not your shipmates, not my parents, not the barkeep when you're neck deep in your reward money?"

"Not if they held a knife to my throat, love." Okay _now_ he was being facetious. He had no idea. He thought my secret was a girl's follies. He had no idea. I stared at my hands, now deathly calm. I was about to say it. I was about to admit for the first time what I had done. I was about to tell someone else. I wouldn't be alone in the knowledge of what I had done for the first time in forever.

"Very well." I swallowed thickly and took a deep breath. "I killed the man I love." The smirk instantly left his face. "And no one knows. But most of all, I see him every time I close my eyes. I so much as blink and I can see the look in his eyes as I plunged the knife into his heart." It was as though the cage dissolved before me. I rushed to crawl out. We stood together in silence.

"Don't you have a ship to escort me to, or something?" I brushed past him angrily. "My parents aren't paying you to stand around pirate." I snarled, trying desperately to hide the tears that streamed thickly down my face.

**A/N: So it's been a while, huh? Yeah, sorry 'bout that. I promise I will get some more content up soon! I am working on the next chapter as you read this! Thanks so much to Polkie2 for your awesome feedback. I totally agree about Killian and while I didn't do much with that in this chappie, but I am working on it for the future! I also apologize about how short my chapters in this fic have been. I don't know why but they keep turning out that way. I will try to do better! Please let me know what you think! I am trying to improve my writing so all criticism is welcome! Thank you lovelies! XOXO - E**


	9. Forest Trek

**Captain Hook**

Killed the man she loved. Yeah. That wasn't one of the outcomes I had pictured in my head. Somehow, the little girl I had been seeing was no longer that, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see her as a child any longer. Of course her not being a child, did NOT make her an adult and even more, it did NOT mean she was in charge. And yet the princess seemed to think she could boss me around. Not likely. I would have to show her who was in charge. I would make sure she knew her place.

The humid heat was slowing her down. To be fair, she was wearing skirts and a corset, but still. That was no excuse. It was her life on the line. It was her who would head back into Pan's clutches. So if she wanted to escape, she would have to walk faster.

"Hurry up." I grumbled.

"Did you want to trade clothes?" She snapped back impetuously. I spun around and gripped her wrist, snarling.

"Listen up lass, you seem to have this idea that I am a servant, sent by your parents to be your heroic savior. But allow me to clear you of this expectation. I have taken a commission. A price. It is a price I could get from any similar job." I lied. "So don't think I am about to go above and beyond to risk my neck for you. The moment you become more trouble than you're worth is the moment I walk away, let Pan have you and feel no more guilt than had I spilled a flask of run. So don't expect me to care for you or cater to your needs, _Princess_. Do you understand?!" The girl had shrunk back, looking finally like someone facing Captain Hook. She nodded simply in response and I scowled at the girl. "Good, now Hurry. Up." I let go of her and moved on, expecting her to keep up now, be at my heels. However, when I glanced back, she hadn't changed her speed whatsoever. She was still lagging, still moving slower than we could afford. "Did you not hear me?!" I sputtered. Fire filled her eyes as she met my gaze.

"You can yell all you like, it doesn't change the fact that I am wearing clothes that weigh half a ton, nor the fact that I've been awkwardly cramped in a cage for weeks and my leg muscles are sore and aren't working properly."

"You seem terrified of the boy and rightly so, but clearly you don't understand, in a ranking of evil, I trump him any day. I am the most feared pirate in any realm. You would faint if you heard so much as a suggestion as to one of the things I've done. So allow me to ask. If I were Peter Pan, would you complain, would you lag, would you speak to him thusly? Or would you do your best to comply, use your fear to power you forward?" She rolled her eyes in the way that only a teenager can.

"I would tell him to go to hell and I would walk at the pace I could. I am not afraid." She paused, making sure I was looking directly in her eyes. "And I don't faint." Before I could respond, she had stepped around me and continued walking in the direction we were headed. "Where are we going, oh vicious pirate?" she asked, altogether too sarcastically for my liking.

"My ship. You'll be safe enough there until we can find a way off this godforsaken strip of land." She froze and I almost ran into her.

"Wait. You don't even know how to get out of here?" She rolled her eyes. "My parents are going to have to send an even scarier villain to save _you_." I nearly drew my dagger at that. How dare she disrespect me in such a manner? "Well it's a good thing I need the time here anyway."

"What are you talking about?" I growled.

"I have to find the Green Fairy. Pan said I could bring her off the island with me. And I need to convince the Lost Boys to come too, He didn't exactly say I _couldn't_ bring them with me. He just said I wouldn't find a way. If they all want to leave I will bring them along." How she had convinced him to promise her this much was beyond me but I would come to that a different time.

"I'm not a bloody chauffer!" I yelled at her. "I'm not here to transport half the island back to the Enchanted Forest." She looked at me, staring into my eyes, into _me. _

"No. You're cruel and broken and you don't want to be here. You have no love for anyone else. If it were up to you, you never would have come to save me. You aren't a hero. You're a villain looking for a payout." She paused, though clearly not finished. "But you have a heart – broken though it may be – you have a heart. And if there was a way to free the captives of this island you would do it."


	10. Trust

**Emma**

We got to his precious ship and loath as I was to admit it, it was awesome. It looked just like the ship from my dream a few nights past. And it was glorious. I'd always wanted to sail away on an adventure but my mother had assured me that the high seas were no place for the heir to a throne. That danger lurked everywhere. That there were no servants to dress you or fancy dinners or any of the comforts we had in our castle. Little did she know that these warning had the opposite effect than what she had intended. Didn't she realize that I longed for adventure more than I longed for some prince to sweep me off my feet? Didn't she realize that danger was exciting? Didn't she know I didn't want to be heir to a throne, that I _hated _being dressed by servants and the fancy clothes they made me wear? Didn't she know that the boring life we led was slowly killing me? That the fancy dinners where good manners were more important that being a good person made me want to jump off the north tower? Each warning she gave me only increased my desire. And here it was before me. A ship like no other. It wasn't the largest ship I'd ever seen, but surely it was the most magnificent. It was magical, this much I knew was true. But it was more than that. It was…proud. Could a ship be proud? Well this one was. It was proud and it was alive and I loved it.

But just because I loved his ship didn't mean I stopped hating him. Because he was a jackass.

"Come on, lass," He called out, already a good 20 yards ahead of me. "We're almost there. Grab a rope, the boys will pull you up." Boys. As in all boys. It was obvious of course, there weren't female sailors let alone female pirates. But I hadn't exactly thought of that. I was going to be stuck on a boat for how long, with _only_ boy. And if my counting was correct, (and this sort of thing still happened in Neverland, I supposed I didn't _really_ know) something was about to happen to me that these _boys_ would be absolutely no help with. And it wasn't like I had access to my usual products, I mean what was I supposed to do? Shove something up my–

"Lass," his voice was deadly serious suddenly and he paced quickly too my side, gripping my arm hard. But he didn't seem to be angry with me. There was something else. "I know you hate me and revel in doing the exact opposite of what I say but right now I need to you trust me. Run. To the ship. Now." I didn't hesitate or question him. I trusted him. Completely. Looking back over the next few days I would question myself and my complete trust in the Pirate constantly. It made no sense. I hadn't trusted anyone since Baelfire had died. I always needed a reason; I always needed an explanation. And yet he says run and I sprint off in the direction he points. Not that it was a bad decision. Moment later I heard it. His laugh. The blonde demon's laugh. He had followed us, he had _found_ us. I ran as fast as I could, sprinting towards the ship my emotions running high. The men aboard had thrown down ropes and I leapt for one the moment it was within reach. They pulled and I climbed, getting on board even more quickly than I had hoped. I glanced behind me just in time to see the pirate being pulled away by the lost boys.

"No!" I cried out, not quite sure why I was quite so impassioned. I hated him. Although it hurt me to see the lost boys following Pan's orders just because they didn't feel they belonged anywhere else. It hurt me to see such evil take place. No matter the victim. As they pulled him away the air around me quieted. Gone were the inhuman screams of the lost boys. Instead silence swirled tauntingly through the sky. I glanced about, staring into a myriad of unfamiliar faces. Finally one of them stepped forward. He was the size of a house (okay not really but still, he was _huge_) and had a tattoo curled around his eye (one of which was a different color from the other). His shirt hung open, casually showing a hefty amount of thick chest hair not to mention the tanned muscles that wove intimidatingly across his chest. I took a step back. Without Captain Hook, who knew what these men thought of me? Who knew what they were going to do with me?

"Princess." He finally said, his voice rumbling but kind. "Welcome aboard the Jolly Roger."

**So that went in a way different direction than I intended...hmm. Well, I hope you all enjoyed it anyway! Please leave a review! I would love to hear any commentary you have on this story! What did you like, what did you hate, what do you want to see happen? **

**DFTBA - E**


	11. A Princess Plays Dress-Up

**Author's Note: Firstly: I apologize for the obscenely short chapter last update and I apologize for how short the chappies have been this entire fic. This story is weirdly stunted in my head and as a result I find that I write it in snapshots and bits and pieces. Well you all are so amazing and you don't deserve that. So I hereby pledge that I will write longer chapters and that I will update more frequently. (I will TRY anyway. Secondly, the clothes that Emma finds in this chapter belong to Milah. (Imagine that;) for an idea of what the outfit she puts on first looks like, google image search 'pirate Milah OUAT' and a bunch of images will pop up! **

**Emma**

"My name is Demetri, Miss. I'm Captain Hook's first mate." The man was at least two heads taller than me and had four earrings in his right ear. Tattoos were visible under the collar of his shirt, hulking black and intimidating, they suited him well. He looked the part of a pirate. But as I soon found out, his bark was a lot worse than his bite. He was kind to me. Noticing the state of my dress, he immediately took me to a room on the main deck that was filled with trunks. He opened a few to reveal ladies apparel and left me alone to change into something both more comfortable, and more clean. They were beautiful clothes. But I found that they all, even the more proper garments, seemed to suggest a pirate-like feel. I wondered who these clothes once belonged to. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps there was a pirate lady somewhere out there.

There were leather pants that fit me reasonably well and a pair of boots that were slightly too wide around my feet, but I tightened the laces and they fit me well enough. The shirts here were far too loose, they hung around me threatening to catch a breath of wind and sail away with me. This problem too was fixed as I found what appeared to be a leather corset of sorts. It belted together and held the loose fabric close to me. But I had no sooner put it on and I could see that this piece went a lot further than maintaining one's fashionable appearance. There was a spot to holster a sword, and no fewer than three small daggers that fit discretely in the ribbing. The sleeves still fluttered around obnoxiously so I took a few leather thongs out of a jacket I found and tied them around my wrists. The sleeves were still loose but at least this way I wouldn't be limited in what I could do with my hands. There was an entire trunk of jewelry but really, what was the point of accessorizing here? I pulled my hair back into a loose ponytail and left the room. The men were clustered around a table speaking in hushed voices. Demetri was the first to look up as I stepped out onto the deck and instantly he froze, staring at me. One by one the rest of the crew looked up at me and they too reacted the same.

"I forgot we still had all her stuff on board." A short, portly man spoke gruffly. "Where's the captain keep them?"

"In his room of course." Demetri answered. "It's a good thing she looks nothing like Milah, Captain would have a fit if he saw some curvy brunette wearing her clothes." I had no idea what they were talking about but I was suddenly self-conscious about my curves. I wasn't a stick, there was definitely something there, but I wasn't exactly what you'd call buxom.

"Who's Milah?" I asked quietly.

"Part of our crew." One of the men responded gruffly. "I'm Billy, miss. We're very pleased you're safe. But we don't have time to sit about and reminisce. So if you don't mind, we've got a rescue mission to plan." I stiffened.

"I asked one question. And if I may ask another, you all stayed on the ship while Hook came looking for me. Why?"

"Only Demetri has been on that island before. Hook had all of us stay on the ship for the most part." This pirate was a young boy, almost a child. _No. _A small voice in my head popped up. _He's almost your age._

"So I've spent more time on that island that all of you." The boy nodded. "Then I should go along to rescue Hook." The men burst out laughing.

"This island is no place for a Princess."

"You don't say." I responded dryly. "I've only been living here for a month or more."

"Princess-"

"Don't call me that." I snapped. "It's Emma. Just call me Emma." They quieted.

"Look, I've been in Pan's clutches for ages here. I have an idea where they're keeping him if they haven't killed him yet. I'm good in a fight. My father's been training me with a sword since I was 7 and I'm not half bad with a bow and arrow." I refrained from telling them about my forays into studying Magic with Regina. I hadn't come close to controlling my magic and these seemed the kind of people who would be more wary of that then pleased. I sighed. "I understand you are reticent to believe me given the fact that you lot had to come all the way out here to rescue me after I'd been captured. But Pan used magic on me while I slept. I didn't have the chance to fight back. I can do this. And I won't be alone, I'll have all of you."

"That mermaid." Demetri finally broke the silence. "She came aboard to speak to the captain, had a message from the King and Queen. A way off the island." The men grumbled along, clearly divided on the topic at hand. "If we want to get out of this realm we need the girl to be within reach of the demon anyway. It makes sense to bring her." His word appeared to be law. Even those who were still adamantly against my involvement agreed and started about preparations. Demetri and the others who had spoken, Billy and the young boy, pulled me aside.

"All right, Princess," Billy began.

"Emma." I corrected him.

"All right, _Emma_," He amended with a melodramatic eye roll. "Let's hear what you have in mind. Where do you think our Captain is?"

**Conner (AKA – the young boy who spoke to Emma a few minutes ago)**

She was beautiful. I hadn't caught more than a glimpse of her retreating form as Demetri led her away. But then she stepped out in Milah's clothes and I had to catch my breath. She was beautiful. And strong. She wasn't what I expected as a princess. She wanted to go back to the island to help save the Captain. That was impressive. And she didn't let Billy boss her around. Everyone had laughed at her but she just stood her ground and stared them down, without so much as blushing. And she was beautiful. She was so beautiful.

She laid out her ideas for Billy and Demetri but I could honestly say that I had no idea what she was saying. I couldn't tear my eyes away from her, but I also couldn't focus on what she was saying. All I knew was that I got to go with her. It would be a small group, Demetri decided, Billy would stay to watch the ship, while Demetri, Emma and I would go back out along with a few other men (whose names I didn't really focus on after I heard Emma and I would be together).

As Demetri went about procuring the proper weaponry for Emma, I began to compare the two of us. Our age could be a bit of a stumbling block as far as any potential relationship would be concerned. But in two very oppositional ways. On one hand, my body was only just turned 17 while she had been an adult for a few months now. Would someone of legal age really want to date someone who couldn't grow a proper beard? On the other hand, I was nearly 100. Would someone that young be interested in someone who had lived a full and complete life? I guess we would find out. Because I wasn't about to let her go. I liked her. I liked her a lot. And I was going to do my best to woo her.

Gods but she was beautiful.

**Demetri**

She was special. I could tell right away she wasn't the posh, pampered princess we'd all expected. She could fight. She had a good head on her shoulders. She had thanked me profusely for allowing her to wear second hand clothing that had been in trucks for a century. She hadn't touched the jewels; her appearance hadn't mattered to her as much as the utility of her clothing. When she'd presented her plan it was clear that she was a born leader, that despite the slight aloofness I sensed in her, she understood people. She had presented her ideas differently to both Billy and I, as if in the brief moments she'd known us, she understood how to convince us of following her. And she was clever. Extremely clever. She had an idea of what Pan would do, given what she knew of him and the little she knew of his relationship with Hook. She didn't like Hook. That was clear. But he had come to save her and she seemed honor bent on saving his ass one way or the other.

But there was more to it than that. There was something about her, I didn't know how to explain it but she was 'only human' in the same way the Jolly Roger was 'only a ship'. The Jolly was imbued with magic, with life, with a personality and a soul of its own. It was special, different, and wonderful.

Which is precisely how I would describe her. Perhaps she too, possessed some sort of magic. It wasn't impossible. The Queen's step mother used magic and she was around that woman all the time. Perhaps she'd picked something up.

"Demetri." She called out and I smiled. It had been a long time since we'd had a woman aboard. And say what you will, but Milah had been a blessing to this ship and crew. Something about a woman's presence made us work harder. Milah had raised a lot of questions that made us all think about what we were doing and why we were doing it. It had made our work purposeful. We didn't steal from those who had none, we protected those who could not protect themselves, and we became the kind of pirates who could still be proud of themselves at the end of the day. We had slipped into old habits in the past century. Maybe Princess Emma would do us some good.

"Yes Princess?"

"Emma." She corrected instantly, her eyes flashing something akin to annoyance. I smiled. The child was adorable angry. I would be certain to annoy her more often. "I was wondering if you had a spare compass."

"Compasses don't work on this island. We have the sextant, it will help us map our course."

"Compasses don't point North. Because this realm doesn't have a North. But it does have a magnetic pull. There's a magnetic pull to the Heart of the Island. The compass goes crazy as you walk around the island. That's what Hook said. He said that it is because the magnetic pull is constantly shifting. But I'm not sure that's true. If you were drawn to the center of the island it would be the equivalent of walking around the North Pole back home. I think it's more complicated than that. I think that part of the Heart of the Island lives in Pan. I think the compass may be drawn to Pan. I think we can find Pan like that." She seemed so thrilled at the intricacies of this quest we were about to undertake. (I could easily see her being the sort of person who would call this trip an 'adventure' and be thrilled by every life-risking moment.) There was a brightness in her eyes that was invigorating. Youth fascinated me, they got so excited so easily. She reminded me of Hook when I'd first met him. I knew Hook resented her, and she'd made it clear she hated him, but that was a mystery to me. They would complement each other so well, I could truly see them being friends. If he wasn't a pirate. And she wasn't a princess.

"Demetri?" She asked. "A compass?" Oh. Right. That wasn't a half bad idea. It was worth testing anyway.

"We will stay the course we've plotted. But I have to problem lending you my compass. It's not a bad theory to test." She smiled and nodded her thanks as I paced over to my bunk and trunk to fetch the metal device on its long gold chain. I was pleased that she hadn't made a fuss. Despite my evolving opinion of her, she had been born and raised a princess, and she probably wasn't used to people not rushing about to fulfil her requests. But she had accepted my judgement and been thrilled, as though she hadn't expected me to comply at all, when I did grant her part of her wish.

I returned with the compass. It was a golden brass color and it had last me well over a century of use. (My father had bought it new nearly 150 years ago.) The face of the piece itself was impressive but simple enough. There were no extra functions of it, no barometer, nor timepiece as Hook's impressive medallion had but it was handsome enough and did its job. Usually. Not particularly well, of course, when it was in Neverland. But who knew. Perhaps the Princess would have better luck with it. I handed it over, and she instantly hung it around her neck.

I tilted my head, eyeing her up. She very nearly looked the part of a pirate. Any Lost Boy would hesitate to attack one of us without a direct order from Pan, and if she looked too Princess-playing-dress-up, they'd target her first. Perhaps a few more accoutrements to help her look fearsome and intimidating. Milah had worn jewels the size of a man's fist, letting everyone know that she was good enough at her job to steal some of the most protected gems in the land. It did the trick. That wouldn't do for Emma. She was a princess. She would look far too at home in large, gaudy jewelry. No one's instant reaction would be that she had stolen it. No, the jewel free look would do her well. Her hair tied back that way worked in her advantage as well. It signaled that she was hard working and ready to fight at a moment's notice. How she'd chosen Milah's clothes had suggested the same. If I had chosen her appearance myself I couldn't have styled her better. But there was something missing. I didn't know what. But something. Kohl around the eyes perhaps? Hook kept far too much in his cabin. I suggested it and while not jumping at the idea she didn't seem opposed to it. I explained to her battle did not begin at first contact, but rather at their perception of her, and that appearance, did in fact, matter. Thompson often lined his eyes so he helped her apply the makeup. She looked fierce as anything, but something was still missing. I sighed. I couldn't put my finger on it and we couldn't afford to waste any more time. It was time to go. Our Princess dressed as a Pirate would have to do as she was.

**Well? What did you think? Please review! I'd love to know your thoughts! (As always – any form of critique is welcome! I want to know the good the bad and the ugly!) xoxo-e**


	12. Back into the Woods

**Emma**

Okay so I had lied a bit about the compass. Yeah that was a decent idea, having it follow the magic flow, but Pan was too clever for that. He would guard against it the moment he figured out what I was doing. (And of course he would figure it out. Magnetic pull went two ways. He would feel it as we were closing in and he would flee.) I had a better idea. I'd seen Regina doing it before, enchanting a compass in this way. So all I had to do was _focus_ and remember to control my magic with my _mind_ not my emotions.

Then again, this was an emotion fueled enchantment, maybe my particular brand of magic wouldn't be such a curse here. I was going to enchant the compass to point to whatever the holder wanted most in the world. Want to find a particular island, this compass would point the way. Want to find a missing shoe? Get out the compass. It had been a brilliant idea. A witch of sorts had brought the idea to Regina and the two had worked on it to perfect it just a bit. The witch had left with two of the compasses, saying she had promised one of them to a certain Pirate Jack Sparrow. I had been there for a few of their sessions. I had seen where it had gone wrong. And I had been there when it went right. I could do this. I just had to get alone with the compass.

"Princess!" A small voice called out.

"Emma." I corrected before even turning around. It was that boy. I couldn't remember his name.

"Yes, of course. Emma." He grinned as he said my name and I couldn't help but smile back. Perhaps this was someone who could finally see me as a person, as Emma, not as her majesty. "I just wanted to let you know that you aren't alone out here. I know it must be scary to be surrounded by all of these ancient pirates," he teased with a wink. "But you and me? We can stick together, be friends." I couldn't help but grin back.

"All right," I replied. "Friends, then." He bowed dramatically and took my hand, kissing it making me laugh.

"It is an honor and a privilege Mademoiselle Emma!" He called out loudly, drawing the attention of the nearby crew members. "Men! Take note! I am officially the friend of Miss Emma…" he trailed off, then lowered his voice and asked me, "Do you have a last name? Or is it just, Goddess Divine?" I snorted in laughter.

"Nolan. My grandmother's last name was Nolan. That's the only one I know of." He nodded.

"Miss Emma, Nolan. Soon to be known throughout the realms as Hero Extraordinaire, The Savior of Pirates!"

"Would you quit messing around, mate?" Demetri smacked the boy lightly on the back of the head. "We've got a rescue mission to carry out Conner." _Conner, his name was Conner, Emma!_ Still, Demetri couldn't help the small smile that turned up the corner of his lips.

"Princess? You all ready?"

"_Emma_," I corrected. "Is ready. Let us proceed!"

**Hook**

Bloody hell. This was awful. To get the princess to safety only to be captured myself? I was an embarrassment to pirate kind. I was a failure. Not to mention I was trapped with the blond demon and I was bored as hell. It had been 6 days. SIX. BLOODY. DAYS. Was my crew looking for me? I wouldn't really blame them if they took the princess home and got the ransom first (I mean I would be pissed as all hell but I wouldn't blame them) But I knew that _that_ couldn't be the case because they couldn't leave this godforsaken realm without blondie and I knew for a fact that he was right here.

I still didn't understand how we were getting out of here. Damn mermaid had been more cryptic than anyone had a right to be but it was all we had. Supposedly she was a "good mermaid" if such a thing existed, but I wasn't sure if I trusted that.

"_It's simple enough. Once you have the princess on the ship, Pan will follow. Then the Princess will rip his shadow from him, fling it into your sails and voila, your ship can fly between realms." I couldn't have been more shocked or confused by the ginger before me if she'd sprouted horns and claimed to be the devil incarnate. _

"_What the hell abut that is simple? The Princess is with him now. If she's so great, why doesn't she just rip his shadow from him now, escape her cage and fly herself back on her own? Why did I even need to come here? And if you knew all of this, why didn't the King and Queen just commission their team to come to Neverland in the first place? You realize that what you are saying literally makes no bloody sense?" The mermaid sighed and flipped her hair in what could only be an incredibly frustrated manner. _

"_We didn't know about Neverland or Pan. But as soon as you identified the villain who took the Princess, her Majesty Regina did some research and consulted…" She trailed off and flushed. For a mermaid, this girl wasn't that great at lying and manipulating those she was speaking to. "…consulted someone who has slight visions of the future and we got some additional information."_

"_Who?"_

"_Pardon?"_

"_Who did you consult, fish?"_

"_A seer, don't worry about it. The point is that he saw the Princess and how she helps you all return home."_

"_And could 'he' be a bit more specific?"_

"_The Princess is struggling with who she is. And until she finds the answer she seeks, she will be able to figure out how to defeat Pan and take his shadow."_

"_What does that even mean? How do you take someone's shadow?"_

"_If I knew that, I'd just tell you and then we wouldn't have to wait for Emma to figure herself out, we could just bring her home, dumbass." I smirked. There was that mermaid attitude. _

"_Now, according to our seer, upon deciding who she is, the Princess will face Pan and all will be clear to her. Then if she is able to win the battle with him, you all will fly home safe and sound."_

"_Back up fish, what do you mean, 'if she is able to win the battle'?"_

"_Well, there's a possibility that Pan prevails." She said, quietly._

"_Then what happens?"_

"_Then I hope you all like living in Neverland, because then you aren't going to be able to get out of here."_

That wasn't an option. So this Princess, in all her fine dress and adornments, had better figure out how to get the best of the demon. Because I did _not_ want to live here forever. And after actually meeting the girl, I can't say I was filled with a whole lot of hope.

**Conner**

She liked me. I knew she liked me. We had been trekking around nearly a week now and I could always make her laugh at my jokes, or make her smile with a funny face. Demetri was pissed off at me, that much I knew, but it was worth it because the Princess liked me. It was almost time to make my move. Once we found the captain we'd be on the ship and we'd be taking her back home. If I didn't get her to kiss me soon, I wouldn't have a chance of sleeping with her on the way home. That sort of thing with a princess was bound to take time. And out here, I never knew how much time I had left. So I'd better make my move soon. I wanted to sleep with the beautiful princess. And I would. Just wait and see.


	13. Magic

**Demetri**

I get that Hook likes Connor because the kid reminds him of himself at that age but seriously. If he didn't shut up soon I was going to kill him. He wouldn't have to wait for this grand battle with Pan, because I would kill him right here and now. Not only was he saying the most insipid things, (loudly for all Lost Boy kind to hear, I might add) but I am fairly certain that the kid is actually trying to _flirt_ with the Princess. And it was nauseating. No really. I wanted to vomit. _Emma, can I carry your pack for you? Emma, explain that cool compass thing again, you sound so smart when you talk about it. Emma, why aren't you using the compass yet? _Yeah okay, that last question wasn't something that Conner said, rather it was something I had been thinking a lot lately. Conner was right. Her plan sounded smart. And it wasn't going to work. But no matter _my_ opinion on the matter, she really seemed to believe in it. So why wasn't she trying? I had tried to get Connor to ask her about it, by feeding the question into him and hoping he'd bite, but all he did was get annoyingly grumpy and stick up for the genius of Emma Nolan. Even now while we were on a break he was huddled over her, reaching out and grabbing her-holy shit! No! Connor, what are you doing?

"Connor!" I hollered out gruffly. His face dropped and he reluctantly left her side. I lowered my voice and leaned into his ear. "What the hell are you doing, boy?"

"Showing the Princess how to carve wood." I rolled my eyes.

"You can't just grab at a Princesses hand like that. Are you trying to How do you know how to carve?"

"I watch the Captain do it all the time, don't I?" he sounded almost offended and it was all I could do not to laugh in his face.

"Yes, because watching The Captain carve intricate, tiny, works of art is the same as knowing how to do it yourself without accidently chopping off your own finger, or worse, _hers_." I glanced back at the Princess who was studying a chunk of fallen brank carefully.

"What exactly was your plan here? Huh? Lend her your knife, sit behind her, wrap your arms around her and make something incredible that she'll always treasure?" His face fell even further.

"How did you-"

"Because that's what any pirate would do with some barmaid lass who dreams of seeing the world and going on an adventure when the furthest they'll travel in their lives is to the nearest wharf to pick up the catch of the day. And sometimes, it works. But you keep this in mind, boy. She isn't a barmaid, she's a princess. That girl has more suitors than the number of people you'll meet in your entire life. Good men. Rich men. Kings, Princes, Wizards, and all manner of folk who actually deserve her. She's been trained from a young age to know who is worth her time and who belongs with the servants and I'll give you one guess to pick out which one of those you are."

"Emma's not like that. She's special." He was right. She was special. She was different. But she also wasn't about to run off with some boy pirate who thought too highly of himself and thought that her apparent beauty was what made her shine. I was trying to let the kid down easy and it seemed to me he just wasn't going to let me.

"Aye. She is different. She'll be your friend. But she isn't about to marry you." He grinned.

"You don't know that!"

"I do. And what's more, that girl over there is already better at wood carving than you'll ever be so your play has turned from pathetic to laughable." I gestured behind him to where I'd caught a glimpse of the Princess laying out a design on the piece in her hands, having already hacked off the unneeded bits. She was moving along at quite the pace and the strokes she was making were well placed, smooth, and even. If this were her first time, even Hook would be impressed.

"Son of a-"

I cut him off before he had time to worry too much. "Don't sweat it, kid. You'll find yourself a girl your speed one of these days."

He glared at me. "Really? I didn't realize that there were available women just running about Neverland."

"Of course there aren't. The good news is it doesn't matter. None of us are getting a bit older here so when we get back, we have twice the dashing tales of heroism without a bit of the aging markers those types of tales can leave behind."

"Whatever. She's into me. And if I can't be with her permanently, I'll have to settle for a short, incredibly romantic fling with the most beautiful woman in the-" It was somewhere around then that I stopped paying attention. I turned back to look at the Princess, instead. What prompted this sudden urge for Arts &amp; Crafts in the middle of a hostile island we were trapped on with a psycho maniac? It was odd. She seemed odd. Special, yes. Smart? Incredibly so. But there was a horde of secrets inside that girl and I had a feeling I wasn't about to be let in on a single one of them. A shame, that. I was curious as hell and the more I thought on it the more I couldn't stand not to know. Why the hell was she carving wood?

**Emma**

I was bored. So. Terribly. Bored. How awful was that to say? We were on a quest to find a heroic pirate on a cursed island with a psychotic murderer who liked to kidnap children and never let them stop being children not to mention wanted to impregnate me and force me to create this child that he would then use to save his precious torture island. And yet I was bored! It was all that – oh shit. I forgot his name again. That blonde kid's fault. The one who wouldn't shut up, who wouldn't stop asking me questions, who wouldn't stop fawning over me. At first I thought he was joking and it was pretty funny. But now? I wasn't sure. And if this wasn't all a joke then there was something seriously wrong with this kid. _Emma, can I carry your pack for you? Emma, explain that cool compass thing again, you sound so smart when you talk about it. _You know what would be a better question?_ Emma, why aren't you using the compass yet? _Funny how I had explained my fake-theory about the compasses at least 15 times by now and yet he wasn't the slightest bit curious why I hadn't actually begun. In truth, I hadn't begun because Demetri was always watching me and I couldn't find a time to sneak away and try some spell work. Every time I went to relieve myself in the woods, he gave me 5 minutes until he claimed he would bust through the flora in the direction I had gone in and dragged me back to the group whether I was finished or not. I wasn't about to try him on something like that.

My next plan was to wait until they all fell asleep, only they didn't. Not all of them anyway. They took turns, watching over me and waiting until their shift was up. Then they'd wake someone else and it would begin all over again. Watching over me. Not over the camp or each other, no. there was one person awake who kept an eye out for Lost Boys, and a second who just kept their eyes on me. Like they were my mother's guard. They weren't the guard! They were pirates! Whatever happened to drinking, carousing, and running about acting like idiots? As oxymoronic as that seemed, those things would be incredibly useful right now. But I digress. My point was, that I was incredibly bored, which led me to play with the broken tree brank that must have fallen recently. (Side thought – was it just people who didn't age? Or did plants stay the same age too? And if they did, how where there old trees and young trees? Or did this used to be a normal island and then it became all wibbly wobbly in regards to time and since then no aging of any life, plant or otherwise, occurred on it.) _Oh, that's a pretty piece of wood, Emma! You know, it kind of looks like a pony! _No it doesn't you simpering idiot. It looks like a bird. Can't you see the wing there? Actually, if you cut that part out, you could make it into a wing! I had no sooner pulled out my knife than he was crouching behind me and offering to teach me to carve. I wasn't trying to carve wood, or make this some spectacular project! I was just board and maybe getting the bird to fly out of his branch with a few cuts from my knife would distract me from his incessant flattery. Luckily Demetri had called him over and I no longer had to listen to him. Less luckily for me, from the way they both kept looking over at me, I was certain that I was the subject of their conversation.

Hours later, we had hiked at least 10 miles and the chunk of wood I had been working on had broken in half. I'd tossed it, but something kept me looking for another piece I could use. It was almost fun, carving away layer by layer until something started forming. "We'll camp here for the night." Demetri's low voice was quiet and calm as he set his pack against a tree and began to look around. We can best defend ourselves against any attacks from Lost Boys if we circle up here, away from any clearings." Lost Boys. Why did they call them that? Because they had been taken from their parents? Because they were lost to their families? It was the obvious answer, and yet I didn't think that was the case. We set up camp and it became clear that Demetri had first watch over me. What was I going to do? If we were going to find Captain Hook, than I was going to need to make this compass around my neck do more than spin uselessly in circles. To do that, I needed to use my magic. To do _that,_ I needed to find a way out of the watchful eyes of this bunch. To do that I needed a plan and – Mother of all Fates. He was falling asleep. Demetri, was falling asleep. Was it possible that my plan might actually work out? This was perfect. Too perfect. Suspiciously perfect. But then again, I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. As soon as I was sure he was really asleep, I stood up and backed out of the camp. I turned on my heel and ran. As soon as I got far enough away, I picked out a tree and started to climb. Thank goodness my dad had let me play in trees as a child and though I hadn't been allowed as often since I had come out, I hadn't forgotten and I soon found myself hidden in the thick branches of the tree comfortable and as safe as I could be on this island.

I held out the Compass and stared at it. Nothing. Come on. I could do this. I closed my eyes and thought back to my teachings. Just let the emotions run through you, Emma. _Feel_ the magic. I could almost hear Regina's voice as she urged me to do better.

_Feel it Emma. Feel the object. Feel what it is. Feel what you wish it to be. Feel the Magic, Emma. _

_That isn't what dad tells me. _My eyes flew open. What was he doing in my head! His snarky voice was supposed to stay the hell away! I wasn't supposed to think about him anymore. I wasn't supposed to – I took a deep breath. Baelfire was gone. And if I had any hope of getting out of here, I couldn't let his voice just spring into my head. I had to feel the magic, feel the good. Not the pain. The pain had led me down a road of dark Magic, one I wouldn't be visiting again. Feel the Compass. Feel finding one's heart's desires. Feel the magic. Bring it all together and –

There. It was humming warmly in my hand now. It worked – or at least something had happened. I had done something magical to the compass. Whether or not my intentions had prevailed was still undecided. Well, only one way to find out. I swung out of the tree and landed softly on the fern covered ground. I opened the compass and took a deep breath as I watched it spin around and around. _What I want more than anything right now, _I thought, _is to get back to camp. Back to Demetri, and Cyrus, and Wilhelm, and Charlie, and Evan, and Owen, and even that annoying kid whose name I can never remember. I want to be there. Because being there means finding Captain Hook and finding Hook means finding a way out of Neverland, and finding a way out of this mess means that I can find a way out of the _other _mess I'm in. _I opened one, eye, peaking at the Compass and smiled. It had stopped spinning. And it was pointing back in the direction from whence I came. I think it worked. I think I actually did it.

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**What do you think? Please Review!**


	14. A Family in the Making

**Demetri**

The Princess was unusually excited today. There was a spring in her step that hadn't been there before. Probably had something to do with wherever it was she had snuck off to last night. Seemed important. I hadn't seen fit to stop her. A girl lives on this island that long and she's not completely helpless. She's scream if she got into trouble. It was bad luck to have a woman around camp anyway. Whether or not that superstition held true for the sailors who believed it, it certainly did for the women themselves. Living with a bunch of sailors, _pirates_ especially, and a woman ran across some bad luck eventually. Not that anyone of our crew would dare. Captain made it clear. Pirates we may be. But there was a code to stick to. And he wasn't about to support a crew with bad form. Particularly when it came to the ladies. Them who were around when Milah was one of us knew damn well that to mistreat a woman came with a fortune of bad luck like that what had never rained down on a man before from either the captain or his lady. Some of the crew were newer though. And they had the sentiments to match. And if the captain caught wind of Connor mooning around like a lovesick calf at midnight the boy was in for some teasing. So long as he kept it to mooning. The girl had already made it clear she could take care of herself where the boy and his ever-annoying pursuit of her was concerned but Milah would clock my head if I let him try and make a real move on her. That woman might be dead, but she still scared the living shit out of me when I thought about doing something she wouldn't have allowed. Milah was a fine woman. Didn't make them like her anymore.

I glanced at the blonde and grinned. She would have liked the Princess. Liked the idea of a girl who was smart as a whip, shy but independent, and who was always looking out for the men around her. That's what she did, the Princess. I'd known her for less than a week and already I could see how she cared about us, and not in a 'charity' sort of way, not in a 'oh, these poor lowly peasants' sort of way, but she actually genuinely cared about us. And she looked out for us. She knew everyone's names though as a princess she had no obligation to care, and she knew things about all of us. Knew things I didn't know about my own crew mates of, in a few of their cases, hundreds of years of knowing each other. Just the other day she was talking at me while I, as usual, remained silent and minutes later I found myself telling her about my mum - who had died 238 years ago and whom I hadn't spoken about to anyone in at least two centuries. Then yesterday while we were walking I heard Cyrus telling her about his son what died of old age and Cyrus was telling her how guilty he felt over living so long as a young man when his own grandchildren were dead and buried, his one great granddaughter the only one of his lineage left, in her dotage and here he was wiry and strong, blonde hair, wrinkle free skin – well shit. I hadn't known that. Oh, and apparently Wilhelm sings. 200 years, you think you know a man. Live on a damned boat with him and four days in, he sings her his favorite lullaby, the one he used to sing his lady loves in each port. And damn, I wanted to poke a bit of fun at him for it, but he was too damn good for me to think of an insult. But Charlie, nah, Charlie took the cake. Apparently Charlie used to be a duke or something. His oldest brother took the title and the job when their pop died and Charlie went into the Royal Navy to serve under William Jones, Captain's brother. Princess just grins at him.

"_Charles Richard Francis Dolfo II?" Charlie nods with a grin like that name means something to him and apparently it does because apparently that's his damn name. "We learn about your family in history lessons. Your brother Edward went from realm to realm in search of the lost ship, The Jewel of the Realm that his brother had gone missing on. Tell me that isn't you!" Charlie shook his head proudly. _

"_That was me." He was proud. Proud to be one of us. Proud to fight against the realm, the good fight. But there was sadness behind his eyes too as we thought of the families we had left behind, now all dead and buried. _

I had turned away from the conversation after that. He was telling her, not me. I had no business listening in. The Princess was mostly quiet but when she spoke you got this innate sense that you could trust her and it showed. Just this morning we had gotten into a disagreement about where to go and half the men turned to her first for direction. And it wasn't because of that stupid compass, they honestly wanted to know what she thought. They honestly wanted to listen to her and follow her. She was taking over the crew, one by one. And to be perfectly honest, I didn't mind a whit. She was a good leader, why not, the girl had been groomed to lead a country since the day she was born. She listened to what everyone had to say and unlike most people in charge, she changed her mind. Shew had given one opinion this morning and when Wilhelm pointed out the flaws in her statement, she had grown silent and thought about it for a few minutes before asking him some questions about his counter points. She had nodded and then _deferred_ to him. She said she hadn't known some of that and that she agreed with him and then she changed her mind. I had never see someone do that, just listen to information, learn more about it and then change their minds? Leaders didn't do that. But they should.

There was something about this girl. Quiet, but strong, fierce but hiding something, she was a question, all around, a riddle that I couldn't quite figure out. She had said that the Captain hadn't seemed to like her much and I brushed it off saying he was a prickly, unhappy man and that he treated everyone like that but she had seemed convinced that he held her in particular disdain and I wondered if she was right. Did the Captain hate her? Resent her perhaps, just for making him come back to this place? Had he even taken the time to get to know her before he decided on all out hatred? I was certain he'd like her. She had all these traits that he valued so highly. And she was confounding, she didn't listen to directions, she made her own plans, she refused to stay on the ship while we all went after Hook. Her eyes would flash in anger any time someone called her "Princess" or some variation of that or when someone made reference to the fact that she was a girl or couldn't do something and next thing you knew she was challenging them to a duel. It got annoying after the first few times (only partly because now that I had seen her fight I had a feeling that if she ever challenged me she may actually beat me, mostly because it was a waste of time. Really.) but later when I confronted her about it and said she didn't have anything to prove and that it was a waste she just rolled her eyes and lowering her voice she managed this tone that was half whisper half angry hiss.

"_They have magic. You understand that, right? Pan and his army of lonely children have magic and they won't be fighting for nothing, they'll be fighting because they truly believe that if they do one more thing for Pan, if they do well enough, that their parents will come for them, their families will come for them and they wont be lost anymore. You're fighting for your captain's life. They're fighting for their souls. Who do you think will be fighting harder? They practice every day and if we don't do the same we'll never keep up with them and we'll never beat them. I'd like to avoid a fight if we can but if no, then we need to be prepared to engage. And it would be really nice if no one died. They aren't going to kill me, so they're training themselves to fight for the win, not to the death. I will keep training with them. And you will do what you can to help get those points across. Say what you will about their leader, but they're just boys Demetri." _Like I said. There was something about this girl.

"We should stop here, set up camp for the night." She called out, flinging down her pack and looking so much like Milah doing it my heart froze for a moment. "Let's get a fire going, its freezing."

"Pan will see the smoke." Connor whined.

"If Pan wanted to know where we were he would come and find us, same as he did when he took Captain Hook." Emma jumped in before I could say almost verbatim what she was explaining to the boy. "Besides, we're looking for him. If he wants to make our jobs easier he can be my guest." All the air in my lungs escaped me. Holy shit. If this girl wasn't so young, so royal, and sooo off limits, she would be altogether perfect for Hook. As it was the Captain wasn't the sort of guy who just dated. He had loved Milah more than life itself. And since then his needs were met by bar wenches who knew there was no future, who knew that the name he was going to call out wasn't theirs and who were completely okay with that. Hook didn't have it any other way. Pirate Captain he may be, but he was also quite the gentleman.

**Killian **

What the bloody hell was taking my crew so long to find me? Were they sitting around having tea with The Most Annoying Princess in the World? Or were they out looking to rescue their captain who had only gotten off the ship and onto this Godforsaken stretch of land because they were all too yellow bellied to do it themselves?! Bastards. The lot of them.

Tink had visited twice now, her eyes poking out of some scrub here and there as she circled me, unannounced to Pan, checking me over to be sure I wasn't bleeding out somewhere. Of course the last time I had made a joke under my breath about how she could really help a man out when he was tied up like this and her eyes had flashed an angry shade of dark green that became her quite nicely before she blinked away and disappeared. I haven't seen her since. Still, I hadn't known her eyes could change color so that was something I could pretend was fun to think about to pass the time while Pan went off on one of his boring monologues. I liked green eyes. Milah's eyes had been brown and they were lovely, of course, but I always loved the color green. It wasn't that I didn't love blue so much as it was that all I saw somedays was blue, stretching on forever. I loved blue, I did. But I was the kind of man who appreciated the rarities of life. Milah's roguish confidence, seeing a new set of constellations for the first time, the way the sea turned almost green after a storm in some realms, it was fascinating, that pale green which sat just below the water's surface that tinted the edge so slightly it almost wasn't there, but added this dimension to the water. The Enchanted Forest had such a phenomenon to it. In a harbor, after a storm just below the waves, a pale, soft green drew my eye and for some reason it always made me happy.

**Author's Note: Please please review! **


	15. Rescue Mission Take 1

**Killian**

He'd tied me to a stake. And the lot of them were dancing around me. Pan had gone off into the night but the damned Lost Boys were dancing around me and shouting like crazy children, like savages. It was humiliating. And loud. And annoying. And I just wanted to be on the Jolly Roger feeling the comforting sway of the ocean beneath my feet. Was that too much to ask?

"Heartbreaking isn't it?" I jumped. Why did Tink do that? Sneaking up on people was not okay!

"What, that I'm tied up here and my crew for all I know just up and left the bloody island with their prize never to return? Yeah. I'm a bit upset about it." Her brow furrowed.

"They didn't leave you. For some unknown reason they're fiercely loyal, I still can't quite figure out how you managed that kind of rapport with them. No, they're on their way here now with Emma to rescue you."

"They brought the Princess _back_ onto the island that I rescued her off of?! They're letting her just walk back into Pan's clutches?!"

"Wow, be careful Hook, someone might think you cared about the girl." I snorted a laugh.

"We lose her I lose everything. I worked really hard to get her on that ship and they just let her traipse around one of the most dangerous places in the world? Fools." Tink had a broad smile on her face and chuckled softly. "What's so funny?" I demanded.

"You'll see." I paused a moment and refocused the conversation. If I pissed her off again she'd run off and I would be bored and angry again. She was a welcome distraction and I had to keep her happy if I wanted that distraction to stick around.

"So if it isn't my eventual demise, what is so heartbreaking?" She nodded at the boys.

"Look how sad they are."

"What are you talking about? They're all cheering and screaming and dancing around a prisoner and a blazing fire. They're ecstatic."

"No. They're not. They're terrified and lonely and sad and it breaks my heart." I didn't see it but I wasn't about to question her so I simply stayed silent. "Anyway, I'm here to ask a favor." She continued. "Tell the Princess I'll take her up on the offer, that I want in on the deal."

"What are you talking about?"

"She made a deal with Pan. And I want in. Just tell her that I'll be there when the time comes. That I want in." her brow crunched angrily now. "And tell her to stop calling me the Green Fairy, I stopped being Green when Blue took my wings."

"The Princess made a deal with Pan?!"

"It's not a bad deal. She played him. She tricked him into it." She turned to me with a smirk. "You'd have been quite proud actually." Before I could retort she turned and started to leave. "Just tell her Hook. She'll know what to do." And with that she was gone. Well that was odd. On one hand, my men were coming for me. On the other, they were being slowed down by that useless Princess who now all of a sudden fancied herself saving me like some hero type. Although to be fair, she'd probably been told since her youth that she was a hero and now she had some sort of complex. Typical. Royals just ruined everything.

All of a sudden my hands were loose. The rope that tied them together was no longer binding me. I froze, feeling around for what had just occurred. Buried deep in the wood of the stake was an arrow sticking directly where the knot had been moments ago. They were here. This was happening. I sat still, trying not to alert the Lost Boys that something had just changed. Gripping the arrow, I pulled it from the wood, clutching at the feeble weapon I now possessed it was better than nothing. A chill ran through the air and a new energy was present around the campfire. I had no idea what was happening, but something was afoot. Something had changed. The dancing of the boys grew even more frenzied and their eyes almost seemed to glaze over. Was it the smoke that was now filling the clearing? Was it something more? Was there magic afoot? It certainly seemed it. Then there were hands touching me. I jumped and turned my head to find a grinning Wilhelm.

"Good to see you Cap." He muttered. "Come on, before it wears off."

"Before what wears off?"

"Princess had some magic dust or some shit that affects your enemy. Got it from some rainbow fairy or something for her birthday. The lost boys don't even see us right now and if we hurry, we can be halfway back to the Jolly before they realize we're gone and all the way back before they work up the courage to tell Pan they've lost his prisoner." He pulled me to my feet. "But we have to go right now."

* * *

**Emma**

I had told Demetri. I had to. The Lost Boys were surrounding him, sneaking in wasn't really an option and Pan would be back soon and we would have lost our advantage. This was a time for magic. I had pulled Demetri aside. I trusted him. I knew he had overheard some of the more private conversations with the others and yet he hadn't so much as mentioned it to him. I needed someone's help to pull this off and of them all, I felt I could trust him the best. I explained to him about the compass and how I had used magic to make it work and how I had an idea of how to distract the Lost Boys so we could get Captain Hook without anyone getting hurt. He seemed utterly unsurprised at my confession and, while confused at the necessity of secrecy, agreed not to tell anyone about it. He scooped some dirt up off the ground and handed it to me.

"Magic dust. Gifted to you by a fairy upon your eighteenth birthday. To distract your enemy while you go about undetected." I smiled and returned to the others, spinning the tale Demetri had come up with convincingly enough that they believed me. Wilhelm agreed to go and fetch Hook and Demetri took the great honor of blowing the dust at the Lost Boys. The others stepped back and watched him in awe while I bit back a smile.

I had pilfered a bow and quiver of arrows abandoned by, presumably, one of the Lost Boys. I held the arrow in question and thought hard about what I wanted to happen to the boys. Distraction. That was all I needed for them, just a bit of distraction. Maybe excitement would do the trick. I could have simply cast a spell over them but I didn't trust myself to not hit the Captain nor to not look like I was doing magic. So instead, I clutched an arrow tightly and thought about my intent. I felt it. The arrow glowed warmly in my hands and before the others could realize it I aimed into the circle, at the knot of rope holding the Captain's hands together and loosed the string. Bullseye. Not even a hairs breadth off my mark. I said a silent thank you to my mother for making me learn so diligently and nodded at Demetri. He blew over the dust and within moments the arrow's magic began to spread out. I could almost see it, the almost transparent haze that was reaching out. It mixed with the smoke from the fire and the whole clearing began to have a smoky appearance. The Lost Boy's dancing grew frenzied and their eyes widened thought they didn't see what was right before them. I nodded to Wilhelm who smiled and snuck deftly into the clearing to fetch back the captain.

"Be ready." I murmured to the others. "The moment they get into the safety of the woods we clear out. No running until we've made it half a mile, we don't want to raise suspicion but we need to walk as quickly and quietly as we can." I flipped open my compass. _We had Hook. What I needed now was the Jolly Roger. I needed to be on this ship to go home. What I wanted most in the world was that ship. _The compass stopped spinning, pointing to my left. I gestured to Demetri. "That way. We're going that way." The others nodded and prepared themselves to leave.

"How do you know that Emma?" Connor asked breaking apart the silence. "Gosh, I'm so bad with directions but you just have that innate sense of place, like the Captain. That is such an amazing talent, Emma. Really. You are so-"

"Connor now is really not the time. You need to be quite." It took everything in me not to hiss the words at him. I liked my new friends. But Connor was one of the most annoying people I'd ever met. And I lived with Snow White and Prince Charming.

"Princess you dropped your knife." Demetri pointed to the place we had gone to privately discuss magic and I saw something silver glint on the ground. It must have fallen out of my belt. I'd have to tighten the thing later. I stepped around the tree and bent to pick it up as Wilhelm and the Pirate stumbled out of the clearing and back to our group.

"Tink told me that you brought along the bloody Princess!" Hook's voice was furious. "No wonder it took you so damned long. Where is she anyway?" Everyone stood sheepishly, looking back and forth at one another but avoiding the Captain's eyes. Great. We had a plan but a few words from Captain Wonderful and they all stand around like dogs with their tails between their legs. Someone was going to have to take charge and see this plan through.

"Move out. Now." My voice broke into the reverie that had settled the moment the Captain was with us. It seemed to me the others didn't know whether or not they should be jumping for joy at having him back or acting in a more manly fashion to impress him. But I had listen to Regina bossing everyone else around since I was a child. I knew how to speak imperially, finally, in a way that no one ever seemed to question. And sure enough, Demetri had set out in the direction I'd indicated and the others were following behind.

As we hastened down the path I realized that Hook wasn't behind us. I turned to see him standing next to a tree, unmoving, staring at me.

"Are you coming?" I asked sarcastically. "Or did you want to stay with the Lost Boys as they finish roasting Marshmallows and singing songs?"

"You changed." He said quietly nodding at my attire.

"Yes, I took off the torn, soaking wet dress that barely covered me, thanks for noticing. What the hell is wrong with you?! We need to go, now!" still he didn't move. "For the love of…I did not just trek through half of Neverland and risk pissing off a bunch of Lost Boys for you to stand about and be useless." I stalked back to him and gripped his hand tightly, pulling him along. "Now are you going to walk on your own or do I have to hold your hand the whole time like your mum?"

* * *

**A/N: So I realize that this was a bit anticlimactic as far as fighting goes but that's because…it's not the climax! Remember, Emma needs to get Pan's shadow before they can leave Neverland so there is still some confrontation we haven't seen yet! I hope you are enjoying this. Please review! I am always trying to improve my writing so any critique, positive, negative, whatever, is really helpful and welcomed! Thanks!**

**P.S. Super sorry for the short chappie! This one is coming to me in bits and pieces and evidently that's how I am writing it out. My bad! I will work on making them longer! xoxo - e**


	16. The One Where Pirates Freak Over Blood

**Killian**

Who in the hell had let her into Milah's trunk? Whoever it was, was a dead man walking. Those were not _hers_. Just because she was a princess did not mean she could just take someone else's things! Speaking of taking things that _did not belong to her_, perhaps I should mention MY crew! They listened to her. I'd be in the middle of talking and she'd make some stupid little demand – no! Not even that! She'd make a suggestion that we cut our rest break short and trek on, that she thought Pan might be trying to get a read on where we all were (I mean seriously, how would she even know that?! What, was the child magic or something?!) and we needed to move around and so all of a sudden my crew has leapt off their lazy asses and are following her directions without question. It was…it was…well I didn't know what it was beyond damned annoying! Those were Milah's clothes. This was my crew. She couldn't just come in here and take everything!

"Princess." Demetri's voice rumbled low as he looked directly at the blonde clearly unaware I was listening in. "The men have grown weary."

"The men are like little girls." She scoffed. I barely held in a smile. The Princess had a point. "The sun isn't even fully down yet, there is still light."

"Fine. We can push them on. But eventually we will have to stop and rest. How shall we guard ourselves against Pan?" No. He was not asking for her opinion, for her advice, before he even addressed me? His C_aptain_!

"No. I can't do that. That's too much too far away from his camp. He'll sense that stronger than he'll sense us. Let me think a moment."

"Princess," Demetri began warningly. The girl reached her hand out and touched his arm gently.

"If I have to tell you to call me Emma one more time I'll hand you over to Pan myself." She said, her tone telling a different story. Demetri smiled almost sheepishly.

"Emma. This is serious."

"I know. Let's keep moving for now, I'll come up with something."

"Or you could just ask me." I suggested making the Princess jump. "I've only lived on the island a few centuries."

"A couple." She said.

"Pardon?"

"A couple centuries. A few means three and you've only been here two, not even actually, cut your last hundred years short by 14 months and came to the Enchanted Forest."

"How do you know how long I was-"

"Your crew can't shut up." I looked into her eyes as she spoke. Her tone was utterly bored, nonchalant, she didn't seem to care too much about what she was saying or the conversation we were having, but her eyes told a different story. She was worried. Worried that I had overheard her before perhaps? But none of that was particularly incriminating. Annoying and rude and made me angry sure, but why would she be worried about that?

"Telling you all of their secrets, are they?" I said in the seductive tone I saved for manipulating women. Why had I changed the subject? Ruthless Captain Hook would have seen the vulnerability and leapt on it, digging in until he found a foothold and could control her. I brushed this thought aside and continued. "Or perhaps you're sharing some of yours. I can only imagine what lies hidden beneath a Princess's exterior." I said with a wink as I brushed the waistband of the leather leggings. She rolled her eyes.

"No." She said calmly.

"What?"

"No, actually." She leaned in and whispered in my ear, her breath caressing my skin like silk, playing with the loose hairs on my neck. "You couldn't begin to imagine." I looked up at Demetri whose expression was alarmingly smug as she strode confidently away towards the group.

"What are you looking at?" I asked angrily.

"I'm not quite sure. If it wasn't impossible I would have said that I was watching you try to flirt with a little girl and then have your ass handed to you."

"Shut it." I snarled. "Tell me mate, why does my entire crew follow her every whim? She may be a princess but she's under our protection. Right now, she answers to _me._"

"Perhaps. You are our captain and we will follow you. We care not for the whims of royalty, that's why we're all comfortable with being pirates. We aren't following her because she's a princess, mate. We're following her because she leads us."

"That makes no sense." I responded, raising an eyebrow. He shrugged.

"No. It doesn't. But you will see. Spend some time with her and you will see."

"See what."

"Kings and Queens, people follow them for the title. But that girl? People will follow her more loyally and passionately than any ruler before her. She is kind and just and yet she doesn't make people think she is better than them. _She_ doesn't think she is better than them. She's a princess and yet she's far more than that. There is something truly special about that girl, Hook. And when you see it you will understand why each one of us would follow her to the ends of the earth and beyond." Demetri nodded at me and turned, walking away, back towards her. On the way he pulled the kid, Connor out of the way and led the Princess forward. Great. Now she was leading the group, checking some stupid compass as she walked. Didn't she know compasses didn't work on this island yet? And my men followed her. They were fools. Their heads turned by a pretty face and a girl who had been trained since infancy to rule. If we hadn't had something she needed to get home she would condemn us all as pirates and we'd be hanged for our crimes. Maybe she'd hang us all anyway once she was home. It didn't matter. As long as I got to the crocodile first. Once he was dead, there wasn't much use in living anyway.

* * *

**Emma**

"How much do you think he heard?" I muttered to Demetri as we walked as nonchalantly as we could towards the front of the group.

"We didn't say the 'M' word. Even if he suspects something is up he isn't going to know shit." He murmured back. "Conner I swear to Ursula if you don't stop lapping at her heels like a puppy dog I am going to tie you to a branch so it's impossible to be within 20 feet of any of us!" He growled out as Connor once again appeared by my side. It had been less than two minutes since he had pulled the boy away from me last, gripping his collar and almost throwing him back, taking his place by my side.

"Emma and I are friends, right Emma?" He asked grinning. Oh lord. No. Not the grin. He looked so innocent and happy and I couldn't break his little heart when he looked like that. I sighed.

"Yeah. We're friends. But right now Demetri and I are having a private conversation so we kind of need some space." I gave him a half smile.

"What do you have to talk about that's private?" Demetri glanced at me and back at Connor, suddenly at a loss for words. I on the other hand, said the first thing that came to my mind.

"I'm about to get my period."

"Your what?" his brow furrowed.

"Okay so once a month a girl's body does this thing, it's kind of like a reset. Basically my uterus has been preparing to house a baby and since I am not planning on having a baby it has to start over but before it can do that it has to get rid of all the padding and baby prep stuff in there so the lining of my uterine wall and a bunch of blood has to get flushed out of my system every month. Basically what that means for me is that I will be bleeding out of my vagina for a week and in a significant amount of pain while blood and internal organ shreds spill out of me and I vomit from the pain and-"

"Private stuff! Yeah! I get it!" Connor squeaked and turned around, all but running away from me. Demetri had a pained look on his face but shook his head, almost proudly.

"Wow." He took a deep breath. "Yeah. That did the trick. How did you know that would-"

"No one bothers to teach boys about the female reproductive system and so they get super grossed out by it. Every. Time." He nodded.

"To be fair, what you said was pretty gross. That doesn't really all actually happen, thought, right?" I looked at him.

"You've been alive and walking the earth with girls for over two hundred years and you don't know what happens when we're on our periods?"

"I know about the blood stuff, but vomiting? That isn't really a thing."

"Have you ever been in so much pain you just threw up?" His brow furrowed.

"Yes. I was stabbed in the gut and Hook had to fix me up in the field. No hospital or doctors, no pain deterrents or magic to numb me up, just him, some knives and needles. The pain was so extreme for so long I couldn't help it I just…"

"Yeah. That happens. Extreme pain for a long time and your body tries to evacuate the source so it starts by trying to vomit. Also, now that we're on the subject. This girl who used to travel with you lot. Was she ever in Neverland with you? Because since nothing is getting older or anything I'm wondering if what is actually happening is if we are in a petrified state. You know? It isn't that we aren't getting older, it's that here everything is frozen and our bodies can't go through the changes that they would as we age. If that's the case then it would mean I wouldn't get my period and then I wouldn't have to deal with all of that bullsh…" I froze. "Oh my gosh that's it."

"What?"

"We're all in a petrified state."

"Yes, you said that."

"No! You don't understand! Captain Hook!" I called out, rushing back to him. "I have an idea." I said grinning as I reached his side.

"An idea? And you're actually going to run it past me instead of just ordering my crew around?" He replied grumpily. I rolled my eyes.

"Well that just proves it." I return. "It isn't that we're not getting older. We are! The island is holding our bodies in a petrified state, and not allowing our bodies to change as they would if we were to age properly."

"How does what I say prove that and how does that matter to our present situation?" he glared at me as though he was trying to be intimidating. Well that was ridiculous. I had seen Rumpelstiltskin when he found out I had killed his son…no Emma. Bad line of thought. "You're acting like a grumpy old man, that's how it proves it." I said glaring at him. "It's important to our present situation because that must be how Pan's tracking us!"

"How so?" Demetri interjected.

"It isn't his magic. He's growing weaker, he told me so. That's why he kidnapped me, he needs…nevermind. That's not important. The point is that the island is rebelling against him, its killing his heart, the magic that fuels the island is running out and if he doesn't get the heart he's looking for to fuel it, the magic will stop working."

"I'm really lost. Captain, you lost?"

"A heart isn't just an organ. In my realm there is another heart, not just the one that pumps blood but the place that Regina believes houses a person's soul. She studies hearts. Has a whole room full of them and is trying to return each to its owner but to do that she has to figure out where it belongs so she studies them and she thinks that it's really their souls. Pan's looking for a soul. A soul to hold steady the magic of this island and what is magic really, but science."

"Magic is not science. It's magic." Hook said rolling his eyes. Oddly, he didn't question my telling him that people had another heart and that it could be removed from their body or that my Grandmother had a room full of them.

"It's not. It is just science we don't understand. My uncle Victor works in science and he and…he and this enchantress, they work together to find the links between the two." I had almost sad he and I. as if that wouldn't be obvious enough.

"Let's say I believe, nay, understand half of what you're going on about, lass. Could you elaborate on how knowing this helps us whatsoever?"

"If we know how he's tracking us, we can cover those tracks and trick him into thinking we've gone."

* * *

**Killian**

"This doesn't make sense." I said for what felt like the hundredth time. And as per the last 99 times she rolled her eyes and sighed like a spoiled brat who always thought she was right. Unfortunately for me, in this case, she was probably right.

"Yes it does. I just need Green and then we can make it work."

"_Tink_ doesn't have magic anymore."

"How many times do I have to explain it to you? She _has_ magic. She just can't use it."

"Which brings me back to – she doesn't have magic. If you can't use it, it's useless Princess."

"She has the magic. We will use the magic. This isn't that hard _Pirate_." She snarled the word out but much to my surprise, it wasn't in the demeaning tone most people reserved for the moniker. She didn't think she was better than us pirates. It was almost as though she had no problem with pirates. Just me.

"I still don't-"

"Luckily for me, you don't have to understand it for me to go ahead and do it anyway."

"Green!" She called out. "I know you can hear me. I need your help."

"Hook didn't I tell you to tell her to call me Tink?" There she was. Annoying blonde pixie.

"Kind of slipped my mind, love." She and the princess simultaneously rolled their eyes reminding me why I hated working with women.

"I suppose you also forgot to mention that I wanted to take her up on her offer?" I shrugged, too busy eyeing up the grin those words put on the Princess's face to come up with a more suitable answer. What offer?! And why did it excite the Princess so much? What did she get out of this deal with Tink? Any dealings with fairies were not to be trusted, especially with disgraced fairies.

"I need your help." Princess said quietly. "Can we talk in private?" Without questioning her the fairy took her arm and led her aside. After they disappeared into the foliage I turned to Demetri.

"Why does everyone seem to trust her without a shadow of a doubt? I heard what you said earlier but…no one here, not any of us, not Tink, none of us are particularly trusting. It takes a long time to work your way into a circle like ours, we've all been burned too many times in our lives. And yet you've been with her a week or more, and everyone just…" I trailed off. I didn't know how to describe it. They didn't just fawn over her. They didn't just trust her. They…there wasn't a word for it, or if there was, I didn't know it.

"I noticed it too. There's something special about that girl."

"No. I'm asking what is so special about that girl. I've known her longer than the lot of you. Know secrets about her even. And I don't see it. I don't see what you lot all see." Demetri smiled.

"Have you told her about Milah?"

"Why in the hell would I do that?" I hissed, my fist grabbing his shirt collar on its own volition.

"We all seem to be telling her our deepest secrets. Things I ain't told the others. Things I ain't told you. Things I've never heard from that lot. I've only been traveling with them a couple hundred years and yet, she got them talking in a way I haven't seen before. They trust her, and that in itself is a bit of a miracle but like you said it's more than that. They love her. They want to protect her. They…they look to her for guidance, for leadership." Demetri smirked. "It's how they look at you too, mate. You just don't see it." He took a deep breath. "One of these days you'll see it too. One of these days you'll see that this ain't like no normal job we take. This is different. This is…this is personal now. One of these days, you're going to realize you love her too." I scoffed.

"Forget I asked you. Something about this island's made you delusional." I frowned, looking around, all I could see part of the hell that was Neverland. "This isn't a fairytale."

* * *

**So I haven't had a review in a few chapters:( I love this fic so its one of the few I'm not going to stop just because it's not getting feedback but I still feel a bit bummed out! I really am trying to improve my writing so positive or negative feedback is so appreciated. I really just want to know what you guys think! Anyway - I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I plan on updating again soon so keep your eyes open! **

**xoxo - E**


	17. The Fight

**Author's Note: To those suggesting that there is an uncomfortable age gap here…yeah. I was thinking so too. But then I realized that that's true in the show too! (Not with Captain Swan because she's well into being an adult by then and all.) But with Swanfire! Neal is only slightly less old than Hook (like less than 20 years younger) which still gives him upwards of 150 years. At which point he dates 17 year old Emma. Like…that's really bad! How did we not freak out over this then? (Or maybe I'm just the last to realize this…I don't know.) Anyway…for the sake of this fic, I am not going to be heavily addressing this fic and I am going to make Emma 18…so it's all nice and legal! To be clear: I in NO way support adults dating or otherwise becoming romantically entangled with people below the age of 18. (And in many cases, just because they're 18 doesn't make it okay midlife crisis people!)**

**Also there's a bit of a divergence here with how old Baelfire was when Hook and Milah *ahem* hooked up. (Forgive my puns:) and there will (obviously) be divergence with Bae/Rumple's story line to get us to how he and Emma were a thing etc. etc. But that will be later on.  
**

**Anyway – many apologies for the wait! I love you all so much but my life is taking over! I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

**Hook**

She was beautiful. Heart-stoppingly beautiful. Sure she was a trial sometimes, but oh was she worth the struggle. I felt as though I could stare at her for hours. It felt as though I had waited a life time to see her, as though I had been so close to the love of my life and then torn away but now… now she was here again, before me, and…was it possible? More beautiful than before? It must be possible because tears were welling up in my eyes just looking at her. She was…well…she was home. The Jolly Roger.

"Look at her." I croaked out emotionally to Demetri.

"What?"

"Isn't she the most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your entire life?"

"One of 'em, sure." I spun around and glared at my first mate.

"_One of them?!" _I spat out angrily. "That right there is the Jolly Roger, previously known as the Jewel of the Realm. She is the fastest, sharpest, best, and most beautiful ship known to mankind from now on until forever. She is the most gorgeous creation God saw fit to grace this planet with and you will bite your tongue, Demetri, if you dare diminish her in such a way again!" He was smiling fully now.

"I'll say this." He modified. "Having been on that island, away from her for days, well, now that I see her, she hasn't ever looked as good."

"That's the spirit my good man! Onward!" I broke into a jog.

"Oh my gosh, is he going to kiss it?" A feminine voice broke through my happiness and fogged my sunny skies with a bit of cloud. "I mean, I've known men who are obsessed with their horses, but at least that is a living breathing animal. Then there were a few who took quite a lot of pride in their carriages, even met a man obsessed with his flying carpet…in more ways than one if you know what I mean…" she broke off laughing and I rolled my eyes. "But I've never seen someone wax poetic so much about an inanimate object."

"Well guess what?" I retorted. "You still haven't. A few fairies put a spell on her. She's magical. In other words…animate."

"So you're running off to kiss your magic ship. Yes. That's much better." A retort was on the tip of my tongue when the lad, Connor cut me off.

"Ignore the old me, Emma. I'll race you back to the ship!" The two took off, giggling like hyenas and a twinge of anger rose up in my chest.

"Did he just call us old me?" I asked Demetri. "He's what? 5 years younger? 6? And when you've got a couple centuries on you, what does 6 years really matter?"

"Watch that boy." Demetri growled angrily. "He fancies himself in love with the Princess." I snorted out a laugh.

"You seem rather protective Demetri." I returned, mockingly. "Perhaps the reason that disturbs you so is that you too harbor a crush." Sand was ticking my feet as I grew closer and closer to the ship. It was a wonderful feeling, that sand. Less wonderful, the laughing sounds of the _children_ that had raced to my ship. As though this was all a game. And I was their nanny. I bit back my annoyance with the Princess and the puppy following her to focus on my conversation with Demetri.

"Protective is all." He said with a shrug. "Not only is the boy making an absolute fool of himself and annoying her all at the same time, he seems to think he has a chance with her. To _be_ with her, I mean." He snorted. "Only a food would expect a Princess to romantically consider a pirate. And if he goes too far, if he suggest anything untoward, do you think her parents will be best pleased? She'll be offended at best, and we'll have returned their little lady a little less ladylike, at worst."

"He's a young boy who wants to be in love. Not a lot of opportunity for that around us all. No harm in it."

"She's a Princess, she has hundreds of men who'd kill to marry her. He'll get his hopes up only to see where he really measures up on the scale. Charm and the dashing idea of a pirate is one thing when you're trying to woo a barmaid who doesn't have many prospects or is looking for a bit of adventure before she settles down. But that girl was born and bred to be careful about who she lets in her heart, careful about who she lets into her life. She has kings and dukes and wizards all clamoring for her heart. A pirate boy doesn't add up. One of them will be hurt. And it'll be on you either way."

"How will it be on me!?"

"It's as I said. If she's hurt, who do you expect her parents will blame. And him? He's trying to be you, wooing Milah. If he fails he'll only see it as your fault. So you watch him, you hear? He fancies himself in love with the Princess. And that spells trouble for the lot of us."

"Maybe they'll fall in love." I didn't know quite why I wanted Demetri to be wrong so much, but something inside me desperately needed to win this argument. And it had absolutely nothing to do with the odd sensation I felt when he said she'd never fall for a pirate. "Maybe she'll be his Milah." Demetri snorted.

"How many times to I have to say this to you lot?" He laughed out with a tone that was in no way joking or even amused. "I mean no disrespect here, Hook. But I need to get this through your head and this is the only way I can do that. Milah was a girl in a loveless marriage she resented who was working as a barmaid, had never left her hometown and was beyond depressed. She would have said yes to anyone to get out of there. And yes, the two of you fell in love and that's wonderful but I return to my initial statement of – she was a barmaid, Hook! Her expectations of the world were low to begin with. Her expectations of _herself_ were low to begin with. You were beyond anything she ever thought she'd have. And you were full of adventure and life and newness and everything she had missed in her old life. Emma is a _Princess_. She was born and raised to expect everything. You've heard the rumors about her parents. They married because they were _True Love_, mate. And I'm betting that people who've found that want that for their child. Which means that she has been raised to find her soul mate, her true love." I fidgeted, the Princess's words coming back to me. _I killed the man I love. _Well that was awkward. "And she knows what she's worth, what she deserves and that's a man who can sit by her side and rule. That's a duke. That's a wizard. That's a prince. That's _maybe_ some rich boy from the next kingdom over. That's _not_ a pirate. Connor needs to understand that before he does something stupid and ruins your chance at Rumpelstiltskin."

"Ruin my chance?" I spat out, suddenly a lot more alert to the conversation.

"Like I said. The Princess goes back and says how some pirate boy tried to court her or worse yet, suggested something unfit for a Lady's ear, you think her parents are going to hand over the demon into your care?" I snarled.

"I'll talk to the boy. I'll make him stop." Demetri nodded. "That's all I ask."

* * *

Once on the boat I felt a bit calmer. For about a minute. Then it started. My crew who hadn't been with us on the island, who had stayed with the boat, who had known her for all of a few hours if I had their story correct, were following her around like puppies. It was pathetic. And Tink? She was all a flutter to have a _girl_ around again and kept talking to her about…well I hadn't been paying much attention but I was quite certain it was something annoying and girlish.

"What do you think of our Princess?" I heard Demetri asking Claude, sounding oddly proud for a man wholly unconnected to the lass in question.

"Don't rightly know what to think. But there's something special about her that's for certain." Gods but people had to stop saying that. I stormed off and grabbed my flask. There was one certain way to ease my anger at the girl. And her name, was rum.

* * *

A few too many drinks later we were sat down in the galley, eating some of Cook's best Neverland cuisine. Once again the conversation was shifting into danger territory. Perhaps it was that we had grown board of one another's stories – there only were so many and 200 years is a long time – but the focus of everyone's questioning tonight was _her_. Tink's mainly surrounded 'tell us about your first ball!' territory. But Connor had branched out into the 'tell us about your room at home' field…Demetri was right. I would have to talk to him about that. Whatever particular story she was sharing now was a bit beyond my rum soaked mind but I heard the ending loud and clear.

"-can you even believe that? I'd met the man 20 minutes before!"

"Unbelievable." Someone chortled.

"I don't know," Owen returned. "Seems believable to me."

"You would ask a girl _that_ after knowing her 20 minutes?" Emma snorted.

"Not any girl. But you I might. I could see how someone would, in any case. You don't see it but there is something special about you, Emma." I snorted into my rum glass.

"Yeah." I agreed sarcastically to myself. "Tell me Princess, what kind of "special" kills the love of her life and then walks around unaffected?" Okay, maybe not as 'to myself' as I had thought. The galley fell silent, staring at me. I looked face to face, quite enjoying the looks of shock there…until my eyes reached her. Her gaze was ablaze with fury…and something more. Oh hell. It was hurt. I'd just gone and hurt her damned feelings.

"I guess we know exactly how much a promise from a pirate means, then." She growled at me. "Tell me, _Hook_, how long have you been dying to share that little secret?"

"Emma, what is he-"

"Shut up Connor!" Twin cries rose from the Princess and my lips as we stared one another down.

"It's true though. Isn't it, Princess? You can dance about and make all these men fall in love with you and think you're pure perfection when you're a cold hearted murderer. Killed the man you claimed to love and then walk around without a care. Hypocrite."

"I'm the hypocrite?" She sputtered angrily. "Have you gone mad? You know _nothing_ of my pain. You have someone to blame. You have something to fight, someone to be angry with. You don't have to walk around every day and feel the pain and suffering of knowing that it was you, standing over him with a knife, watching the light bleed out from his eyes!"

I frowned, and asked (a bit pettily),

"If you regret it, if you've repented, why is it such a secret then?"

She continued, without answering.

"You heard my secret but that doesn't mean you know jack _shit_, pirate!" She rose slowly to her feet as she spoke, towering above me, fury alighting her face and making her very being come alive. "I didn't have a choice! I would rather have died then do that to him but I didn't have a choice! And now you sit there judging _me_ all because I'm wearing her clothes, don't you? The very sight makes angry and so you've decided that somehow I'm some horrible person without so much as asking me a single question about myself. Well fuck you, pirate! I can share secrets too." I started a bit, at her curse. Not because I had delicate sensibilities or some nonsense like that, but because it was entirely unexpected out of the princess.

"You know nothing about me." I smirked, shoving down the slightly guilty sensation that was creeping up from my chest. "Do your worst." An expression so livid, so vehemently manic settled into her face and I began to feel a bit nervous.

"How many of your _friends_ know how you met Milah?" My eyebrows shot up.

"You can't just make things up, Princess."

"Oh, so you're telling me that she wasn't holding her toddler son's hand at the time? That you didn't know she was married?" How did she… "Or perhaps that's not much of a scandal for a pirate. Ah. Here's one! Your men have told me time and time again that you are a man of rare _honor,"_ She spat out the word as though it were the punchline to a joke. "That you believe in good form. Would they still believe that if I told them that you offered 50 souls to the Dark One to bring Milah back?" The world was spinning around me. She couldn't possibly know that. No one knew that.

"Who are you, witch?"

"Hook, that's not true, is it?" Demetri hissed.

"No one knows of that. Who told you that?" I hissed rising to my feet, my face now towering over hers, looking as threateningly as I knew how.

"Don't try to scare me. It's pathetic." She spat. True to form, she didn't look the least bit hesitant. Only fury raged across her face.

"WHO TOLD YOU?" I roared. She laughed lowly and smirked at me.

"Rumpelstiltskin."


	18. Brahms Lullaby

**An extra-long chappie to show how much I love you ****:)(And a super quick update!)  
**

* * *

**Emma**

That bastard.

**Hook**

That bitch.

**Emma**

I made him promise. I made him promise he wouldn't tell.

**Hook**

It wasn't like I said any of those things on purpose! It just slipped out! I was drinking and angry at her and the words slipped out before I could stop them. But her? No! She just laid out _all_ my crimes for my men, my _friends_. Told them every dark secret she shouldn't have even known.

"The crocodile." I replied to her smug revelation. "How do you know the crocodile?"

"Old family friend…as it were."

"_Family Friend?!" _I spat the words out. "Your parents have promised I may have him when I return you. That's why I'm here. They'd just hand over a friend? Mayhap they aren't as honorable as legend says, lass."

"Not their friend. My step Grandmother. Regina. He used to be her friend. And…" She trailed off. "He…forget it. The point is I asked you to keep a secret and instead you go and tell everyone, acting as though you're better than me even though you don't even know the whole story."

"What am I supposed to think? You told me you killed the man you loved!"

"And I know for a fact that a little boy grew into a man who remembered meeting you. Who remembered the man with the easy smile and charming manners who made his mother laugh and smile and then a few weeks later…made her disappear. I know for a fact that when she was killed you offered to kill a small horde of people to bring her back. I don't know part of that story, I know the whole damn thing and I kept it to myself you fucking asshole, because these were your friends and it wasn't my business to tell them your secrets."

"You're damn right it wasn't!" I roared.

"And it wasn't your place to tell mine!" She returned with equal fervor, "It wasn't your place to tell mine _particularly_ when you don't know shit about what happened."

"Rumpelstiltskin is a liar. If you knew aught about him you would know that. So why take his word? Why believe him?"

"I didn't!" She screamed, a tear squeezing out of the corner of her eye, in her anger. "I didn't until he told me."

"That makes no sense, Princess." I sneered. "You didn't believe him until the crocodile said what to you?"

"No." She brushed of my comment, her brow furrowed frustrated. "Not Rumpelstiltskin." She looked away, finally, no longer ablaze and in my face. Finally she stepped back and softened. "Baelfire." My face dropped. The boy.

"Princess."

"Forget it. I never want to see you again. I'll find my own damned way off this island." The Princess stood abruptly and made towards the starboard side of the boat. I watched her, fuming.

"Are you mad?" Demetri hissed in my ear. "Don't let her leave! We'll never convince her to come back!"

"I don't _want_ her to come back."

"For gods' sake, mate. Ignore doing the right thing, the honorable thing, ignore the fact that you'll never get to the Dark One without her, ignore any other shred of a reason – and believe me, there are many – why you should go after her and focus on this. She's our ticket out of here. Without her, we're stuck in Neverland forever."

**Emma**

Insufferable, self-centered man! How could someone be so focused on themselves they didn't stop to think what effects their action might have on another person!? It was obscene. And annoying. I hated him. Truly and seriously, I hated him.

"Would you stop running away?" His voice called out at me sarcastically. I turned back towards him and narrowed my eyes.

"Give me a reason. Give me a good reason to stay and I'll stay." He was silent, floundering, until Demetri's low voice rang out.

"You're the only one who can get us out of here. If you abandon us, we'll all be stuck in Neverland with Pan forever. _All_ of us, Emma." I faltered at that. It wasn't the rest of the crew's fault their captain was a pompous ass. We stared one another down as I made my decision. In a huff I retreated to the quarters I'd been shown the last time I'd been on this ship, brushing past _him_ on my way.

"I meant it Hook. I don't ever want to see your face again. So do me a favor and be sure that I see very little of it while I'm stuck on your stupid ass boat."

* * *

A week later found us fighting like cats and dogs as we traipsed around the island looking for a stupid coconut. Not just any coconut – no. We had to find a very specific coconut. Some chick named Tiger Lily had left if when she and her family had left Neverland years before Pan got here. I guess it was a star map. Or some shit like that. I sighed. Ugh. This island was the worst.

"Yes. Make more noise, Princess. _That_ will help us hide from Pan."

"Keep it up _Captain,"_ I returned, "And I'll be so pissed off Pan will be hiding from us."

"I thought about it," I soft tenor voice floated out of the trees making all the men jump to attention. "But watching the two of you bicker is far more amusing than scary." Pan slowly stepped forward and several of the men moved towards me, blocking his access. "Come on boys, I thought we were friends!" Pan said with a grin.

"What do you want, now?" I growled.

"Odd though, normally this place makes people _more_ scared, and yet the longer you stay here the braver and more fearless you seem to be." Pan said, tipping his head as though he was inspecting me.

"Am I supposed to be scared of a child like you?"

"Only in looks, dearie. I'm older and more wicked a man than you can possibly imagine."

"Don't need to imagine. I've been told all kinds of stories about you. But a boy who abandons his own child doesn't deserve the praise of being called a man or wicked." I stared into his eyes, enjoying the ever so slight shift in them as he realized I knew more about him than he thought. "Just a coward."

"It wasn't cowardly. I wasn't afraid of having a son." He shrugged. "Just didn't care much what happened to him. I haven't got a heart." He smirked. "You, however, seem to have quite the bout of information. I didn't realize the captain here knew so much nor that he'd be so willing to share."

"Don't look at me." Hook said. "I've no idea what you lot are talking about."

"It wasn't him."

"Thank who? The fairy surely doesn't know."

"Rumpelstiltskin." Pan let out a bit of air in something that could have been a laugh if he wasn't so clearly perturbed just then.

"Proud of his heritage is he?"

"Not in the slightest, but he does tend to vociferate when he's trying to kill you."

"The Dark One tried to kill you?!" Hook's voice suddenly lacked the venom it had been spewing at me for the past few days and was replaced with something that sounded paramount to concern.

"Repeatedly." I turned to him. "Like I said. My parents won't have an issue handing him over to you." He nodded and I suddenly felt awkward at the less than hostile exchange between the two of us.

"Well as my son undoubtedly told you, I'm more than meets the eye."

"Indeed. But you've been dealing with child's play for 300 or more years. Literally. You're up against actual children. Meanwhile he's been fighting beasts and monsters you've never even heard of."

"Adorable, what some children will believe. He's a liar."

"And you're not?" I questioned sarcastically. "Frankly I'd believe Edward Scissor Hands over there before I'd trust either of you," I motioned to Hook. "But the fact of the matter is, it isn't about what he's told me, it's about what I've seen with my own eyes and you, are a coward and a child. You don't measure up an ounce to the evils I've faced in the world so these pretty pirates can draw their swords and act as though I'm in great danger and they'd like to protect me but I'm about to say one word. A word that will send you running. A word that will make you believe what I say without hesitation or doubt. A word that will make you understand that you can't scare me and you can't hurt me. Do you understand?"

"One word princess? Come now, is this some party trick? Are you going to yell 'moist' and watch while everyone freaks out?" he joked. I raised one eyebrow and stared him down as he rolled his eyes, not believing. "Fine. Let's have it then."

"Tellaro." His bravado instantly fled his face.

"What did you just say?" His voice cracked as one of his feet started drifting back, beginning to step away from me.

"I said, Tellaro." I took a step forward as he retreated one step back. We began a waltz of sorts, I stepped towards him and he stepped away.

"Don't say that word. Do you wish to call the darkness down upon us?"

"I told you Captain." I said to Hook. "Watch the boy run." True to form, he disappeared into the trees. The others were silent and even the wind slowed. (Though that was surely just a dramatic coincidence.)

"What's Tellaro?" Demetri finally asked.

"Don't say it. He's right, about calling down the darkness upon us. And while it's not something that frightens me it would take a terribly large amount of my energy and I'm already sort of tired so let's just not deal with that now, okay?"

The other's looked around to one another, unsure. I sighed.

"Not what." I finally began. "Who. He's a creature. Some say he used to be a man but there's nothing human about him. Next to him, the Dark One, Pan, every dark, twisted being you've ever heard of combined and multiplied still seems like a fairy princess. He feeds off souls and leaves the shells of what used to be a person wandering around and luring more souls back to its hiding places. They say if you so much as look into its eyes you will go mad, but that's not true. Well…not always true anyway. He can manipulate the earth and the air and water and even the minds of men around him. He can make a person turn on their own children and he…he makes people lose their minds. Being near him too long takes away every part of you that was ever there, he's like a black hole, sucking up his surroundings. I watched as a very powerful wizard turned to a cannibalistic cretin by merely staring at a painting of the creature for too long. As you might imagine the painting was soon burned. Except that setting it ablaze only made it worse. Now it is locked in a cavern in the center of the Earth. I can only imagine what happened to the knights and creatures set to guard it."

"And that doesn't scare you?" Hook asked, his too blue eyes staring so deeply into me I felt as though he were reading my very emotions. I shivered.

"No. Why should it? He couldn't destroy me last time, why should this time be any different?" murmurings went through the others and they began to ask questions but I couldn't think about that for too much longer, I just couldn't. "Come on. Don't we have a damned coconut to find so we can get off this damned island?" As I trekked forward, I couldn't help but feel a small modicum of gratitude as I heard Captain Hook yell at the others to get a move on and shut up, and 'how were his men looking so lazy next to a damned Princess?'. At that I glanced back and our eyes met. Instead of the usual sneer that greeted me when I looked at him, I saw a small smile.

* * *

Time for bed. Once again. Another night I wouldn't sleep, just to avoid seeing it play out in my head over and over and over. Tellaro didn't scare me. Not anymore. But watching myself kill Bae, well that was unbearable.

One by one the others laid down for the night, preparing to catch a few hours where they could. I lay down and closed my eyes, pretending to be doing the same but half an hour later, when soft (and some not so soft) snoring rang through the crisp night air I rolled to my side and sat up. To my surprise, Hook wasn't sleeping either. In fact, he sat nearby, leaning up against a large tree, eyes flicking back and forth, reading the darkness like a book. When he met my gaze, we stared at each other, each waiting for the other to move first. Finally he grunted and motioned to an empty spot next to the tree beside him. I scooted over and leaned back, looking up at the night sky. I didn't recognize a single constellation that poked through the trees and into our little clearing. A telltale sign of being in another realm.

"Keeping watch?" I asked him quietly as I fumbled with the leather corset I was borrowing, trying to get it to stay in place. It was damned good for non-metal armor. I'd tried a few knives on it before putting it on that morning but it kept slipping down in the most annoying fashion.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you aren't exactly what I expected." He said finally after a long silence.

"The others, they say that they all tell you things. Things to don't tell anyone else, lass. They say you are kind and beautiful and that for some reason that they can't quite put their finger on, they trust you. I got this idea in my head that they were just transfixed because you were a princess, because you were unlike any girl they've ever seen but really no different from any other princess." He shrugged. "But lately I've been reconsidering. Evan asked if you might be a siren, you know."

I laughed, quieting instantly when one of the men stirred in his sleep.

"Don't be too amused. I suggested that you might be a demon instead."

"I'm just a girl, Captain." I said with a sigh. "Have you ever stopped to think that they feel they can trust me, talk to me, because I'm a trustworthy person? Have you stopped to think that your crew are all as sad and searching as those lost boys are over there? That maybe all they want is to find someone to share their heartaches with? Perhaps you've been denying them that comfort for too long, and now that someone has come along to offer it again, they've decided to take me up on that and relieve themselves of their heartaches. There's nothing wrong with that. Shit!" I sucked on my finger. The leather covering was a good defense for my internal organs and all, but the laces cut at my fingers when I pulled too tightly and damn it if it didn't hurt!

"Let me." The pirate offered, exasperated. He spun me around and took the laces in his hands. "You're wearing this far too loose. Just because this is where it is all worn in, does not mean it will fit you like this." He slid the laces from their eyes and began to restring the entire garment. His fingers were deft at their task, as though he had done this often. "It's near impossible to lace up something like this on your own so you may as well ask for help when you're getting ready. She certainly did."

"Who? Milah?" he stiffened.

"What did the crew tell you about her, siren? I know they must have mentioned something."

"Not much. I only heard the name when they were discussing my change in garment. Demetri offered me her clothes and the others wondered if you would be alright with it because no one had worn this sort of thing since Milah. Then they said it was a good think I looked nothing like her or you'd have a heart attack. It was a little after that I connected the name and the description of her and realized it was Rumpelstiltskin's wife they were talking about."

"Perceptive little siren, then, eh lass?"

"Not particularly. Your sleeves are rolled up, the tattoo is sort of hard to miss. And it isn't as though they're talking in riddles."

"And what about you, princess? Do you have any tattoos?" He mocked me. Little did he know.

"Yes." Was my simple reply. The others may trust me but that didn't mean that I was just going to tell Captain Hook all of my deepest darkest secrets. He already knew too much about me and to be perfectly frank, wasn't particularly good at keeping them.

"Your parents let you get a tattoo?" He sounded genuinely shocked. "No offense meant love, but I've met them, and they don't seem the type to raise a rebellious daughter." He finished tying a not and stepped forward, clearly trying to set me off kilter. "Perhaps the Princess would show it to me, sometime."

"Who said they know about them?"

"More than one?" I turned to him and leaned closer, invading his space and turning his flirtation back on him.

"Wouldn't you like to know, pirate." I breathed in his ear before backing off.

"Maybe I would." Was his frank reply. And for a brief moment, I saw nothing but truth emanating from him. We sat in silence for a moment, neither pushing the subject further. My mind drifted back to our plan. The lives of so many people, all wrapped up in our success in finding one very specific coconut. Hell, all wrapped up in that coconut existing and even more so, in it working for what I had planned in mind. Apparently I wasn't alone in this thought trajectory.

"Do you think this is going to work?" Hook asked.

"Only one way to find out." I smiled back.

"Totally." Son of a – Connor. How did he just appear, all the time, right next to me? "Emma, might I say that you looked particularly lovely today. That red shirt complements you well."

"Thanks Connor." I said briefly. "But really. The Captain and I are trying to keep watch, so you should really get some sleep or you'll fall asleep during your shift."

"My…my shift?" his little brow furrowed. "I wasn't aware I had a shift."

"Connor! Part of this job is being aware of what _your_ duties are! I told you twice before we went to bed that you were taking third shift with Eric." Hook instantly hissed at the boy, playing along with my ruse. "Get to sleep because if you fall asleep during your shift I will deliver you to Pan myself for how useless you've been." The boy scurried off and I bit my lip to keep from laughing out loud.

I was still pissed at the Captain. But overall…well there was _some_ hope for him yet.

* * *

**Killian**

"Wouldn't you like to know, pirate." She breathed into my ear, her hot breath tickling the skin there. She was so close, I could feel the heat emanating off of her, so close that if I leaned even an inch forward, I could kiss her – whoa. Where did that come from? Was I just using the ability to kiss and touch as my units of measurement now? That was fine so long I stuck with people I could kiss. Like Tink. And bargirls. Not Princesses.

Praise be whatever gods there were that before I could ruminate on that too much she leaned back. Wouldn't I like to know? Know what she had etched into her skin for all of eternity? Know what was so important to her being that she had decided to engrave into her body forever?

"Maybe I would." The words were out of my mouth before I had the time to think. The truth. Not just a statement that was accurate, but the truth that lived somewhere just below my surface, the truth that I kept to myself, suddenly I was speaking those silenced words as though opening myself up like that again was nothing. Damn. Demetri might have been right. Mmm. Maybe she really was a siren.

To distract myself from this chain of thought, I refocused my mind on our day to come. One damn coconut, created by a tiny little girl. That's what our hopes and dreams lied in. I sighed.

"Do you think this is going to work?" I asked, not quite sure why I trusted her to have an answer.

She smiled and I felt my chest stutter ever so slightly. I don't think I'd seen her smile yet. Not really anyway, not like that. A few upturns of her lips and her whole face lit up. Not to mention the slight smirk aspect to her expression when she commented cheekily, "Only one way to find out." I opened my mouth to reply but found that someone else's voice filled the air instead.

"Totally." Son of a – Connor. Demetri was right. He followed the Princess around in order to, what? Make her fall in love with him? Fool. Even I could see how annoyed she was by his sudden presence. An annoyance I didn't see when she realized that _I_ would be in her company for a brief time…

Connor had seemed like a good idea at the time. He reminded me of a friend I had growing up and I was fully convinced he could be a rogue, dashing rapscallion one day. _After _he learned that princesses were off limits.

"Emma, might I say that you look particularly lovely today. That red shirt compliments you well." No shit it complimented her well. She looked very nice in red. But lad, you are talking to a girl who gets complimented a hundred times a day or more. She's the heart of her realm, beloved by all. There isn't a day goes by when someone doesn't tell her how stunning she is. If you want to flirt with her, you're going to have to step it up. You mustn't give her what she already knows too well. Don't play the simpering fool. She is surrounded by simpering fools. Play dark. Play charming. Play mysterious. Play…give her something that intrigues her. Something she's never seen before. If it were me, I would be-

I would most certainly NOT be planning how to seduce a princess. Because I was smarter than that. Her voice broke into my reverie.

"Thanks Connor." She said, Her smile crossing over into 'forced' territory. "But really. The Captain and I are trying to keep watch, so you should really get some sleep or you'll fall asleep during your shift." I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud. She was a clever little thing, then. Well if that was how she wanted to play it, who was I to stand in her way?

"My…my shift?" his little brow furrowed. "I wasn't aware I had a shift."

"Connor!" I spoke gruffly, putting on the persona of a man deeply upset by his subordinate. "Part of this job is being aware of what _your_ duties are! I told you twice before we went to bed that you were taking third shift with Eric." I caught the Princess biting her lips to keep from smiling as well. "Get to sleep because if you fall asleep during your shift I will deliver you to Pan myself for how useless you've been." The boy scurried off and couldn't help a smile in her direction as she shook with silent laughter.

"Thanks." She whispered.

"Sorry if he's bothering you, lass." I returned, too quietly for anyone but her to hear. "He might be a few hundred years old but he's not used to spending a lot of time around pretty girls.

"I'm used to it. Men hear 'princess' and their minds jump from attraction to matrimony to King in a matter of moments. They fool themselves to be in love with me and try to fool me too. It's nothing I can't handle, though I do appreciate the help."

"If you think it's only the title, lass, you may need to reevaluate." She rolled her eyes and I couldn't help but grin at how utterly adorable that motion was. If I had a daughter, I wouldn't mind half as much as most parents complain of when she rolled her eyes at me. Although that may have more to do with my joy in antagonizing people than the actual action…

"What does he actually know about me? What about me has he fallen so desperately in love with?"

"I was under the impression that the crew knew you quite well. That the lot of you had grown quite close and were in the rather unfortunate business of sharing." She smiled but there was little joy in it this time.

"They share and I listen. I like to listen. I like the stories I hear and I like being there for other people. I don't particularly trust others to share as quickly as they seem to trust me is all."

A soft breeze caught her hair and it flipped out behind her, clearing it away and giving me a good look at her face in the soft glow of the fire. She was young. There was still so much life left ahead of her. But it hadn't been until a few moments ago that I realized what I had been missing. I saw it on every face around me, every day so I hadn't thought it odd until I really stopped to think on it. My crew were lost. As lost as the Lost Boys Pan carted around his personal torture chamber. They had the look of Lost Boys on their faces. I knew I carried the look too. But I very suddenly realized that so did she. Somehow, the girl who lived in a pretty castle, had more family than she likely knew what to do with, had an entire realm obsessed with her, loving her, somehow, she was a Lost Girl. Very likely that had something to do with her secret. (The one I had made…less secretive.)

I found myself vastly curious about that. She killed the man she loved. Not boy. Man. Which was odd considering she was a child herself. But she didn't just accidentally kill him. She stabbed his heart. On purpose. There was a lot more to that story. It was probably eating her alive, dying to get out, as she lived among a group of us she was unwilling or unable to share with.

"If you ever need someone to listen to you for a change, Princess, you know where I am." She looked into my eyes and her brow furrowed. "Is that so odd?" I asked. "That I might be willing to listen. Or just that I would consider myself a confidant you could trust after what I did to you." I lowered my eyes. That had been wrong of me. I had to find some way to make it up to her.

"No. It isn't that. I have this…thing…that I do. Regina calls it my 'super power'. I can tell when people are lying. And just now…you really meant it. That you were willing to listen, I mean. And that you consider yourself a trustworthy confidant."

"I am a man of good form, Princess. I made a mistake, but it isn't one I shall make again." I looked straight into her eyes as I spoke, willing her to glean the truth of my words. After a few moments she slowly nodded. It was then I realized how close we were to each other. We had been whispering since Connor had left, and the quieter our words were, the closer we learned in to hear one another. Now we were mere inches apart, our eyes staring into one another's; Hell, I could feel her breath on my face and smell some godlike perfume radiating off her.

"Thank you." She shrugged. "I may have…slightly over reacted." I cleared my throat and leaned back up against the tree, re-situating ourselves into a less awkward juxtaposition from one another.

"Not at all." I assured her.

"No. I definitely did. Maybe don't drink out of your rum canteen until you wash it. My eyes widened. "Oh, and if I were you, I wouldn't lie down until someone had taken the burrs off the back of your shirt. Tink and I have been putting them there for a while."

"You messed with my _rum_, Princess?"

"I shan't say what I did. It would only upset your delicate sensibilities, Captain. But I'll just say this, the longer you want your piss to be green, the longer you should drink out of that."

"Princess…"

"And don't worry. I'll talk to the crew and let them know that everything I said was a joke – none of it true."

"_Everything_ you said? What exactly would that be, lass?"

"Again, I'll simply say this: you really don't want to know."

"You're a princess. What could someone who was raised to dance and wear pretty dresses come up with that would be so horrible? I think you're bluffing."

"I was raised to do no such thing. I despise dancing, first of all. And second of all, my mother and Step-grandmother raised me to rule, not look pretty and marry someone who would take care of that part for me." She smiled, nostalgically. "And as far as not knowing how to really prank someone…well. Keep in mind that my father was a shepherd most of his life and my step-grandfather is _the_ Robin Hood. Do you really think that the Merry Men didn't teach me a thing or two?"

"I've met Robin Hood!" I said, smiling. Then the impact of what she had just said hit me and the smile began to fade. "Robin Hood helped teach you to prank?"

"Not just prank. When I was 9, the Princess from the country to our North was over for a play date and she ruined my doll on purpose because it was prettier than hers. Not that I cared about the doll, but still! It's the principal of the thing. It was then that Robin and his friends decided it was best that I learn about revenge." I laughed quietly.

"What did you do to her?"

"Let's just say that Alagasia stopped trading with us for a decade and change."

"Oh come on! Now I have to know!"

"It involved her presentation to our court at the ball that night, a boy she had a crush on, her couture gown and a pair of scissors."

"That's pure evil!"

"No. Evil would have been teaching her little brother dirty words which he then proceeded to yell at her when the hall fell silent at the sight of her." I grinned.

"Princess, I must say. For a 9 year old that is surprisingly devious. But as all of my clothing remains intact…"

"Green piss, mate." She returned with a grin. "And yes, the burrs are a bit childish but oddly cathartic but I _am_ sorry about what I told your crew. They're your friends and even after I tell them it's not true they still will think about it every so often and wonder."

"Okay. Green piss is brilliant but I've been drinking out of this all day and nothing."

"Won't start 'til tomorrow." She said assuredly. I narrowed my eyes questioningly. "You don't have to trust me. You'll see."

"And before I accept your apology, you will tell me what you told my crew."

"And have you force me to walk the plank?" she said with a grin. "Never!"

"I solemnly swear that I shan't retaliate in any way shape or form so long as you tell me what you said." I raised my right hand and bowed my head dramatically.

"I told them that in order to get me out of Pan's cage you had to divulge some of your secrets to. And then I told them a few of Captain Hook's deepest, darkest secrets."

"And what might those entail."

"A few less than common ways one might enjoy to copulate." That did surprise me. From the way she swore when she was angry to her instant attack on my sexuality…well these were not things one associated with royalty.

"Darling, I hate to ruin your parade, but in my line of friends, the weirder ways you can get a girl to do something with you the better." She smiled, not at all shocked.

"I assumed as much. Which is why I made you out to be a tame little kitten who likes to wear a diaper and cries during sex."

"You did what?!"

**Emma**

Somehow our conversation went on for hours. We moved from my revenge plot, into the best pranks we'd both pulled and from there into stories about our friends and families. Sort of. I didn't mention Baelfire. He didn't mention Milah. Dawn was fast approaching as far as we could tell, and I had to stifle a yawn.

"I saw that, lass. I know I'm a joy to be around and all, but you do need your sleep." I nodded. Suddenly still. I knew what was about to happen. I would close my eyes, I would drift off, and then I would see him. Baelfire. I would see my hands force the knife into his chest. I would see him fall to the ground. I would watch as the realm around me twisted and turned into a tornado of anger as the entire realm ripped itself apart. I was meant to be ripped apart with it. But as usual, mom and dad had to go and be heroes and find some way to save me. If they were really heroes, they would have saved Bae too. It made me hate them for a while. I had run away, lost and scared, running as far and fast as I could. Running from the truth. It hadn't been until I'd faced Rumpelstiltskin and admitted to what I'd done that I could return home and face them all. They still didn't know everything. They thought I'd gone for a week. They didn't, they couldn't know that in the realm I'd run to, time was on a different track. They didn't know I'd been gone for years. They didn't know that I had a son. That in my nightmares, I didn't just watch as I killed Baelfire. They didn't know that I watched my son being stolen away from me in the dead of night by a witch who claimed I owed her. They didn't know that I almost died searching for my child only to find that the witch had killed my Henry too. There was more to my deepest, darkest secret. But it all began with my killing Bae. And evidently saying one of those deep dark twisty secrets was enough to get you out of a cage.

"That's not sleeping, lass?" His deep voice rumbled close to my ear.

"Not tired." I insisted. He snorted in response.

"That's not bloody likely." I remained silent, hoping he would get the hint and leave me alone. He didn't. "I'm not about to let this go, Princess. You've peaked my curiosity. Tell me."

"I don't like sleeping here, in Neverland." I admitted finally. He looked at me curiously.

"Nightmares?" he asked. I nodded slowly.

"They're worse. And I don't have a Draught of Dreamless Sleep like Regina makes me back home." He nodded.

"That I understand. But if you're going to keep up with us, you need your sleep." He leaned in. "If you promise not to tell the others, I'll let you in on a little trick." I looked up at him, noticing with a start how close we were sitting. His face was mere inches from mine and the lengths of our bodies were touching. He was warm and soft and I found myself wanting to curl up into his side. There was something oddly comforting about him. I stiffened. It did no one any good to be thinking like that. "Music helps. That's why Pan plays on his little pipe. All the Lost Boys would have bad dreams and run off and leave him here alone, so he plays music and they sleep soundly." I furrowed my brow.

"Is that true?" He hesitated, as though he was being forced to make an unpleasant decision. Then slowly, as if he were a man testing the waters to see if they would burn him, he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and brought me in so I'd be lying against him.

"Close your eyes, lass." He said softly. I did as he asked and he began to sing. Lowly and quietly, none of the others even fidgeted in their sleep at the noise. He had a good voice, low and full and filled with emotion. It was calming. Relaxing. _Odd, though_, I thought to myself as I drifted off, exhausted, to sleep. _Odd that he knew _that_ song._

Lullaby and good night, with roses bedight  
With lilies o'er spread is baby's wee bed  
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed  
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed

Lullaby and goodnight, thy mother's delight  
Bright angels beside my darling abide  
They will guard thee at rest, thou shalt wake on my breast  
They will guard thee at rest, thou shalt wake on my breast

* * *

**Killian**

I was singing to her. Why in the hell was I singing to her?! There was something akin to terror in her eyes when she mentioned sleeping here. I knew instantly that the same sort of nightmares I was constantly plagued with had followed her here too. She should have been too young to have a past that dark, and yet from the bits and pieces I had heard (I hadn't pressed for the full story, even when we had been sitting and speaking amiably, joking with one another even. It just hadn't seemed right. It was her story and she could tell me when she wished to.) it was no wonder she did. Darkest creature of all time. Killing the man she loved. All that and certainly more from the Lost look in her eyes. She reminded me of Milah, sad, twisted, and just a little bit broken. But she was kinder. Milah had taken her sadness, her sorrow and had run from it, run to a better life and I could not fault her in the least for it. But Emma? She took her sorrow and used the empathy she had to care for these pirates around her. Milah had cared for them too, don't mistake me. But differently. Milah had made them her family for a family to replace the one in her head was what she desperately desired. Emma had created a family too, not to replace her own, not to find comfort within, but so that she could take care of them, it was almost as though they were her children. Despite her young age and lack of offspring, she was quite naturally a mother in a way that Milah never was.

The song I was singing. I shouldn't be singing it. It was the song Milah had sung when she missed her son, most likely the song she had sung to him as he fell asleep. Baelfire. She had said that name too, the Princess. She had said his name to Pan. She clearly knew him. She had spoken to him and trusted him once upon a time. I wondered what he was doing. Once I killed Rumpelstiltskin, would he come back home? Back to the realm he belonged in? I knew he only stayed away because of his father, perhaps then he could come home, live his life. Find a woman to love and start a family. I glanced at the girl beside me. Or perhaps she could find love again. They both had a past filled with turmoil that was important – they would understand each other. And they would take care of each other – they both had big hearts, they both loved and cared with all of their souls. And she trusted him, she had said so. I sighed. They would be good together. But why did that thought prickle my mind so?

* * *

**Emma**

_"You have to do it Emma!" he screamed at me loudly as the wind picked up, the storm of _his_ anger whipping around us. "You have to! If you don't he'll find us – he'll kill you! He'll kill your son! He's tracking me now Emma! Do it! I can feel it! You have to do it!"_

_"NO! I don't want to live without you. I don't want this child without you. This is our family, Baelfire!" I held my stomach, not quite showing yet as though somehow I could protect the life growing within. _

_"You know what he'll do to you to get to me. I can't let that happen. He'll take my shell back to my father and I will have to live there, with him, knowing that it's my fault you're…Emma. I can't let that happen to you. I can't live knowing I let that happen to me. If I'm dead he'll have no reason to take you. You can run. He won't track you if I'm not there. Please Emma, you have to do it."_

_"Do you believe in the afterlife?" I asked quietly. "Do you believe that this isn't it?"_

_"Yes. I do. Someday I will see you again." I nodded._

_"Me too." The creature we feared more than all other appeared, just as he always did in my nightmares. He cackled and grinned._

_"Pretty little fools." he groaned, a voice like sandpaper. Suddenly Baelfire's face was twisted in pain and he cried out, his eyes lighting with bright yellow, glowing in a way that was utterly inhuman. He sunk to his knees and let out a guttural yell that made me cry out in tandem for him._

_"Emma." He whimpered, panting. "Please." He begged. I picked up the knife I had long since dropped to the floor in disgust at Bae's suggestion that I kill him. And raised it._

_"Someday is too long for me to wait, Baelfire. Me and the baby, we're coming after you. We'll be there soon. In the afterlife. Together."_

_"Emma, no." he begged. "Just me. Just kill me. You can do this. You can outrun him. Without me, you can make it." I began to sob as the knife descended towards its target. I knew what would happen next. The feeling of skin giving way beneath my hands. The way I would feel at peace as I turned the knife onto myself. The way I would scream in torment as the knife was torn angrily from my grip by _him_. The way my wrist would cry out in pain as my father's hand gripped it tightly and pulled. The way it would feel to be sucked from one realm to another as the first was torn to shreds by the anger of one wizard. Or what used to be a wizard anyway. The way it would feel to watch as the lifeless body of my true love disappeared from my gaze and I found myself instead, staring at my parents' worried faces._

_But none of that happened. Instead, the darkness began to fade away and the storm raging angrily around us slowed to a steady rain shower that left my skin feeling cool and light. Then Baelfire opened his mouth, smiling, and began to sing. A song I'd heard him sing to me before. Whenever I fell asleep beside him, Bae would sing me that lullaby._

Lullaby and good night, with roses bedight  
With lilies o'er spread is baby's wee bed  
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed  
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed

Lullaby and goodnight, thy mother's delight  
Bright angels beside my darling abide  
They will guard thee at rest, thou shalt wake on my breast  
They will guard thee at rest, thou shalt wake on my breast

_The dream around me calmed and I curled up into Bae's warm body, soft and wonderfully strong as he sung to me. All was calm. Fear was dissipating quickly into the night._

It wasn't until I woke up that I realized the voice coming out of Bae's mouth hadn't been his.

* * *

**Author's Note: Weeelllll...what did you think?! Please review and let me know! As always - I love positive and negative reviews because they really do help me edit and grow as a writer. My computer is being fussy so I have to Copy/Paste my chapters in instead of uploading them, so let me know if there appear to be missing words or some that look like they've been replaced with coding because sometimes that happens. So glad you enjoyed it!**

**xoxo - E**

PS - The song Hook sings is called Brahms Lullaby and it was written in the 1800s as a gift for Mr. Brahms' friend when she had her second child. The lyrics are from an old German folk poem and have since been translated.


	19. A Theory on Stars

**Author's Note: Enjoy! (And review! Please please please review!)**

* * *

**Emma**

How had I gotten here? Less than two days ago I had _loathed_ the good captain and today, we were avoiding each other because we had suddenly gotten rather close and the man had sung me to sleep. This island was messed up. It did things to me. Things I didn't like. It made me confront my emotions in a way I hadn't (and quite frankly did NOT want to) since I had killed Bae. The urge to hide my emotions from everyone, especially myself, had only grown with the loss of my son, Henry. A tear slid down my cheek as I thought about him. He had been born in a field, a couple of banished fairies helping me push my son into the world, heartbroken and sobbing knowing that his father would never see him.

I had thought that true love would break my curse. When I was born, an evil witch, with a grudge against both my parents, and Regina had snuck into my nursery, put a sleeping spell on my guards, and cursed my firstborn. She had said that I would never feel the joy that my parents had in having me, but that my first born would be born dead. I thought that when I found true love with Baelfire, that would break the curse. That freaking fairy had told us, that it broke the curse. Well she was wrong. Because when I finally pushed Henry into this world, there were no infant cries, no 'awwws' or 'it's a boy!' from those fairies. There was only shock and dismay, and then more tears from me as I looked down at my little boy, who wasn't able to take air into his lungs. Then she showed up. The witch who had cursed me. She took the body of my child, and laughed. She said that my parents owed her, and that I would pay the debt. That because she had spared me, spared my parents and grandparents, that I owed her too, and that she was here to claim her prize. What kind of monster claimed a dead baby as a prize?

I spent years in another realm, Marmota*, mourning my child, wandering. It was a gypsy girl, in search of her family, who convinced me to return to my parents, that they felt about me the way I felt about my lost child. I couldn't put them through that. So I returned. What had been over five years for me, was a matter of weeks for them. They were so relieved to have me back that they didn't even notice when I mumbled about Henry or Baelfire in my sleep. (They did, however, notice when Rumpelstiltskin tried to kill me, though that was explainable by the fact that he was the Dark One and he was bat shit crazy, so I didn't have to go into too much detail about the whole – murdered his son, just told him now, that's why he suddenly wants me dead, thing.)

"Penny for your thoughts." I glanced up and smiled at Demetri.

"It's nothing."

"It's not nothing." He returned. "You were crying a minute ago, and your face looks, and I quote, 'despondent and painfully sad. It's making me sick.'."

"Who exactly are you quoting?" I asked, forcing a grin.

"The captain. He noticed and sent me over to be sure you were alright." I softened. Because apparently he couldn't come over here himself. Because apparently, he was feeling as awkward as I was and refused to come near me. I couldn't blame him. I'd probably do the same if our situations were reversed.

"Well you can tell the Captain, that I'm just fine. I had a not so lovely memory but I've started humming now and I feel much better." His brow furrowed but he didn't question my statement. Later when he walked back to the Captain, I watched out of the corner of my eye as they spoke. Hook's face was intense, hanging on to every word out of Demetri's mouth, but when he relayed my words, Hook seemed to soften. His eyes drifted over towards me and I busied myself with the belt around my waist, as though I were fixing it and not at all paying attention to him. He seemed to accept my lie and everyone went on. I had no idea where this thought from the past had come from. Baelfire had died a long time ago. It had been five years since my son had been born dead, and almost 6 since I lost Bae. I had grieved. I was moving on.

By pretending none of it existed. Why shouldn't I? My friends and family all assumed I was still 17, 18th birthday on the way. I could erase that whole part of my life and no one would be the wiser. It was just easier that way.

Something that wasn't easy? Avoiding Captain Hook and Connor all at the same time. They seemed to always be on opposite sides of the group and as soon as I would get far enough away from one of them, I'd be too close to the other. This was a problem. A serious problem. Not quite as much of a problem as the stupid feelings I was having towards Captain Hook. Captain. Freaking. Hook. A man over 200 years old. No, a _pirate_ over 200 years old. Someone who was so adventurous, so worldly, huh. A man like that would never settle to be tied to a crown and a 25 year old (ish – it's hard to keep track in a world where the day just keeps repeating itself, but then again, he probably found it hard to keep track when he was living in Neverland all those years to.) girl. He could be with anyone. He had already found the love of his life, and had dedicated the remainder of his days to avenging her. I was just the annoying Princess who for some inexplicable reason, wanted to run over to him and ask him more questions about his life. I hadn't gotten nearly enough answers and how damned slowly could this day pass? In the light of day, it was too much. I couldn't be near him. I had to stay away. But I had a feeling that once we were in the cover of night once again, things would change. The witching hour always changed things. And tonight, I could talk with him again. Joke with him again. Ask him the questions that had been burning through my mind all day. That is, if he left me.

* * *

**Killian Jones**

My piss was green. Every problem I had thought on I had come up with a solution for this morning.

_Getting too close to the Princess. She's just your ticket to revenge, mate. You feel bad for using her like this, no matter if she is fully aware of the trade or not. You've grown quite protective of her in a matter of 24 hours. That's ridiculous. You can't be like that. You're a pirate. She's a princess. She's not yours to protect, even if she did help you pull all the burrs off your back. (_There were quite a few – I had actually been very impressed.) _I mean she had put them there in the first place! You felt something as you sang her to sleep. It's only because that was the song Milah sang. You were feeling something for Milah. The spark on your skin as you touched her was vastly inappropriate. She was a child! I'm over 200 years old! That's disgusting! _You're_ disgusting Killian. You are getting far too attached to the girl – a girl who less than two days ago you positively loathed. It's horrendous. This needs to stop. Oh dear lord! Is she crying? No! I must go to her! I must comfort her._

All of those problems could be solved in one simple step. Keep your damned distance from the Princess. It doesn't matter that she fascinates you, that as royalty, she still swears like a sailor (I would know) and talks quite frankly about sex, or can prank or get petty revenge like no one you've ever heard of. It doesn't matter that you seem to suddenly trust her implicitly – okay that actually does matter. That makes it worse. I definitely needed to keep my distance because, as Demetri and I had discussed pertaining to Connor, having feelings for a princess was the fast track to rejection and pain. It was ridiculous. And it wasn't even real. It was just that I hadn't had this lengthy exposure to a female in a very long time. That was it. I was just horny. Better send Connor...wait. No. Better send Demetri over to check on her. She's okay? Great. The music thing? She's thinking of me too! She is thinking about our conversation last night too! She's…nope. That train of thought is another problem. And I have a solution for my problems. Keep my damn distance. You're just horny and board. And she's amusing and a female.

And so I convinced myself of this, and decided to keep my distance and it was solving all my problems. Even if it was quite awkward.

Until. It was solving all these problems, until.

Until, my piss turned green.

It was such a fantastic prank and she still hadn't told me how she'd done it and I wanted nothing more in that moment than to run over to her and to tell her about the color of my piss and talk about it with her, laugh about it with her, watch as her eyes lit up and she mocked my misfortune. And that desire, was not in any way shape or form, normal. In fact, that desire was probably the biggest problem of them all because it demonstrated a greater regard and camaraderie than I could admit, and the amount of longing to see her laugh or tease me, suggested further feelings than I would have admitted to myself. I was a fool. A goddamned fool. I could claim all I liked that it was because I had sung _Milah_'s song and that I was correlating her with Milah because she was wearing _Milah's_ cloths, but the fact that my piss was green, proved all of that wrong. That was a connection solely to the Princess. And that was a desire that had nothing to do with past loves, rebounding, or even my libido.

Here in the harsh light of day (less harsh – the sun was about an hour away from setting, now) I couldn't go to her. I couldn't go over to comfort her earlier when she cried, I couldn't go speak with her about the half a million things that had occurred to me throughout today to mention to her, I couldn't go near her. It was taboo. She was taboo.

But.

But.

But there was something about the nightfall, something about darkness, what did that call it? Oh yes, the witching hour. There was something about the night that made taboos disappear. Maybe, just maybe, tonight, I could talk to her again. Joke with her again, feign annoyance at my green piss (It was a lighter green now, BUT STILL!) and it could all be as it was in the cover of darkness last night. So now I would just wait. Wait for darkness. Wait for the others to sleep. Wait for her. That is, if she chose to stay up and wait for me too.

* * *

She stayed up. That night. The night after that. Even the next night, after we'd found the damned coconut. And that night. Well…that night was one to remember.

* * *

**Emma**

We'd begun a sort of ritual. Everyone would go off to bed and Hook and I would stay up, waiting until we hear a cacophony of snores, at which point we would both stand up, silently walk to a place, close enough that we could keep an eye on everyone, but far enough away that we could speak in hushed tones without waking them. Then, because we somehow found a way to justify this to ourselves as something friends, and people in the same 'crew' did with one another, I would curl up in his arms and one of us would sing the other to sleep. Then we'd wake up before dawn, crawl back to our own sleeping spots, and spend the next day pretending that none of this had ever happened. What can I say? We were real mature. Tonight was different thought. Tonight, people weren't going to sleep right away. We'd found the coconut and the crew wanted to have a celebration, dance around the fire, anything but go to sleep. It was looking very much like we wouldn't have a chance to talk tonight. That was until Demetri stepped in.

"Princess," he said, pulling me aside. "The Captain is heading out to a clearing about a quarter mile from here. He wants to look at the stars and find the pairings in the coconut's star map. I figured that since you are evidently our key to getting out of here, you too should be fully aware of the stars? Perhaps it will trigger you with the inspiration to fly us away." He smiled at me. "I hate to leave the two of you alone, but someone who hasn't been drinking should really stay and watch the rest of them." He teased, pointing at himself. "And Hook hates company at night time. Ever since Milah, he just likes to be alone when it's dark." My brow furrowed at that. Well that wasn't true. "If you ask me, I think he has nightmares about it, having to watch her die as he was tied up, unable to do a thing to help her." So he too dreamed of his lover's death. It was odd, we spoke of everything else under the sun, but he didn't mention her and I mentioned neither Baelfire nor Henry. Our heartaches, our personal lives, those were off limits. I nodded.

"I'll get my pack then."

"Perfect, I'll go tell Hook to wait for you."

* * *

**Demetri**

Idiots.

They were clearly in love with each other, after I had WARNED Hook that nothing good would come of wooing a princess. Sure I had used the guise of warning him to warn Connor (an occurrence which I had also hoped happened – Connor was no better a match for her than Hook was…perhaps a worse one as he was also a childish idiot.) but still! I had warned him that nothing good would come of this!

At the same time, it was clear that he loved her and was trying to stay away. During the day, the two avoided one another like the plague. They no longer teased and taunted each other as they had in the past, they no longer spoke to one another unless it was absolutely necessary to the mission. But I had woken up several times in the past few nights to find them missing, only later discover them off a ways, heads close together, doing nothing but talking. I knew it was no more than talking, last night I had stayed up until the pair of them had fallen asleep (In each other's arms! In Love! Idiots! Him singing her to sleep! Ugh…) to be sure of it. But they laughed, and spoke in a way I had never seen him speaking. Not even with Milah. That was when I realized that this was far more than a simple infatuation. This was more than an attraction built on the convenience of being near one another. This was real. They were both in love. And they were both about to get their hearts broken as soon as they returned home.

That was why I was suggesting she go with him. If they got to talking about home, they would have to think about their lives once they returned. Hook would recall his revenge plot and she, her duties to her country, and they would realize there was no future between the two of them. Then they could let this fizzle out before it went any further.

"Hook." I said, catching his shirt sleeve. "The Princess is going to accompany you."

"No she's not." He spoke almost defensively.

"Yes, yes she is." I returned. "I just spoke with her and-"

"What did she say? Did she ask to come?"

"You misunderstand. I spoke with her and suggested it. She is our key back home, she should know and understand the star map as well as you, and perhaps this will trigger something for her that will make her think of how she planned to do it."

"It was your idea then?" he asked, very quickly, eyes searching mine.

"Yes. I've just convinced her. She's grabbing her pack and then she'll be here. I was thinking of joining the two of you-"

"Is that really necessary? I'm perfectly capable of protecting her against Pan, as is she, apparently."

"I thought of that. The men however, have drunk a bit more than usual and I thought that I should stay here and watch them. Which is why I said that I _was_ thinking of joining you, _but_ have decided against it." That was a lie. I had needed a way to get them alone and I was glad I had the excuse of a drunken crew to keep the lot of us back.

"Exactly my thoughts, mate."

"Are you ready to go?" a softer voice broke in. The princess stood there, in someone's blood red shirt, (If I wasn't mistaken, that shirt was actually Hook's. She must have stolen it from his trunk before we left) the leather corset Milah had worn over it, now beginning to wear in to Emma's shape, and Milah's leggings. The boots that reached just above her knees, protecting her legs from outreaching branches, weren't Milah's, (The Captain's first love had possessed rather tiny feet.) but they were of a similar style. I would say that the captain was transferring his emotions for his late love onto the girl now wearing her clothing, but Emma didn't look or act a thing like Milah. The identical outfit, looked entirely different on the girl and her persona itself, was strong enough to keep someone from projecting another's onto her.

"Yes." The Captain responded simply, gesturing to the East. "The clearing is that way."

"Great." She nodded. "Bye Demetri. Have fun." She said, waving at me as she took the first few steps backwards. She turned around, facing her destination and the Captain stepped in behind her, not taking his eyes off her for as long as I could still see them.

Idiots.

* * *

**Emma**

When we reached the clearing, I held in a gasp. The moon shone down, lighting it up as though it were filled with the soft glowing, white lanterns that Mom and Regina put out in the gardens during balls. Flowering vines crept up the trees and seemed to hold them back, lining the clearing, and once again, reminding me of mother's gardens back home. It was…beautiful. Hook threw his pack down beside a tree near the edge of the clearing and I followed suit. He pulled out the pad he used as a makeshift mattress, to keep his body off the sticks and stones on the hard ground and to provide some modicum of comfort. He looked at the mat and frowned, then looked to the grass and back at the mat, as though he were weighing the two in his mind. Finally deciding. He left the mat where it was and went to lay out in the middle of the clearing, with only the soft grass as a pillow. I followed suite staring up at the stars. It was a while before either of us spoke. We just stared, taking in the pinpricks of light that made their way down to our eyes.

"I'll never get used to it," I murmured, looking up at the sky in awe.

"What, lass?"

"Looking up and seeing different stars in the sky."

"Well hopefully we'll be out of here in no time, Princess. Then you may go back to your own familiar constellations."

"I don't just mean here." I said, tilting my head to get a better look at a particularly interesting cluster. "When I was a child and my mother or father had to go away on business, they'd tell me to look up at the sky before I went to bed. They said that they'd be looking up at that same moon, those same stars, and wishing me sweet dreams." I smiled, thinking about it. "The first time I traveled into a different realm, I looked up, out of habit I think, and I had a bit of a shock. I'd just never thought about it before, you see."

"The first time you were in a different realm?" Hook asked, curiously. I smiled.

"You may not be quite what you appear, but I'm not either." I assured him.

"Do tell." Huh. He was actually curious.

"When I was 14, my friends and I overheard my mother speaking of an arranged marriage, no idea she was referring to one of my cousins and hadn't the slightest intention of marrying me off. But we got in in our heads I was going to have to marry some ancient king who was terrifying and evil and would never let me see my friends. So my best friend offered to marry me instead and we decided to run away together. Only, we forgot to factor in that we both had parents or grandparents who knew quite a bit about magic so they kept finding us immediately. We wouldn't tell them why we were running away so they were never able to correct our delusions. One day we ran off and it took them a whole 3 hours before they came to fetch us home. We thought for sure we had been home free, only it turned out that they all wanted a break from us and decided to let us be for a bit before they lit out after us." I laughed, remembering the crestfallen look on Baelfire's face when Regina had let us in on that secret. "Anyway, when we were 16 something changed. We had feeling for each other and he asked if he could court me, only, things had changed. His step-mother had died in a tragic accident and his father…well his father changed. Or changed back, I don't know, but my parents were afraid of what his father would do to me and his father resented my parents' happiness, so we were forbidden to see one another. We ran away, for real this time. We hid our trail and I bartered for a few beans of the magic persuasion. We ran off to a different Realm where they couldn't find us, not for a while, anyway, and the first time I stared up at the stars, thinking of my parents I nearly fell over in shock."

"What happened when your parents found you?"

"They didn't." I said shortly. "His father did."

"And?" he prompted, staring at me rather than the night sky, wondering what happened next. After a few deep breaths I decided I was calm enough to answer.

"And it turns out they were right to try to keep my away from him." He seemed to understand that I didn't wish to speak about that and hastily changed the subject.

"So was Neverland your second realm them." I grinned.

"No. I've been to many. For what my parents thought was my 18th birthday, they took me to Wonderland. Which is one of the weirdest places I've ever been. There's this cat who sits around getting high as a kite all day!"

"Are you serious?"

"My mother was horrified at everything and my father and Robin were taking turns distracting their wives while they took a puff on the hookah."

"And you?"

"Snuck off, went to a tea party with a rabbit and a madman and got drunk off my ass on spiked tea." Hook laughed loudly.

"What did your parents say?"

"I told them I had no idea there was anything wrong with the tea."

"And did you?"

"It would be hard not to know as I was the one who spiked it." Once again Hook dissolved into laughter. I smiled. He had a nice laugh. I hadn't seen him smile or laugh very much in the time that I knew him, but when he did, it was a pleasant sight indeed. "What about you?" I asked. "Tell me of your adventures."

"I will give you two stories if you first explain one thing." I nodded, motioning for him to proceed. "What do you mean 'what your parents _thought_ was your 18th birthday." I took a deep breath. I could tell him this much without having to explain everything, Baelfire, Tellaro, the Witch, Henry. I didn't have to talk about that to explain Marmota.

"Promise you won't tell? For real this time?" I looked into his eyes and shivered at the honesty and truth pouring out of them.

"I promise, love."

* * *

"So you just repeated, every single day?" He asked, with a laugh. "How did you not die of sheer boredom?"

"The day repeated itself over and over again, but I didn't do the same thing every day!" I insisted.

"Why on Earth would you stay in such a place? Were you not bored out of your mind, lass?"

"I needed the time."

"I quite understand." I nodded.

"I have a theory, you know."

"Oh?"

"About the stars, I mean. I think that it's all the same stars. We're just looking at them from a different angle." He nodded thoughtfully.

"Interesting. I think you may be right. After all, when I fly to Neverland, I fly through the stars, from one realm to another."

"I'm sorry, did you just say when you _fly_ to Neverland _through the stars_?!" I exclaimed. "You don't just sail through a normal portal?"

"Where on Earth would be the fun in that, lass?" I couldn't help release the giggle that was escaping my lips.

"Well?! Tell me!"

The night progressed in a similar manner. He would tell a story. I would tell a story. I would leave out Bae and Henry. He would leave out Milah and Rumpelstiltskin. I felt badly, knowing that I knew more to his story than he was sharing and not telling him that, but there was a possibility he didn't want me to know, that he didn't want to talk about it at all, and that my bringing up what I knew from Baelfire, would only ruin things between us. Not to mention, if I brought it up now, I would have to explain how I knew that, and then I would have to explain Baelfire and I wasn't prepared to do that just yet. Our stories got shorter but our laughter lasted longer. Despite our avoidance of some major pieces of our history, I had never shared this much with anyone. I had never known this much about anyone. Perhaps that was because he'd lived more than one life, and had more to tell, or perhaps that was because in the short time I existed, I had been forced into impossible situations, I didn't know. What I did know was that we seemed to understand each other. I understood everything he said – every time he told a story I knew his actions, knew why he made them, why he felt the way he did. And when I spoke, I felt no judgement or pity, but true and honest understanding. Coconut brushed aside and stars ignored over our head, we finally grew silent.

Bae's watch on my wrist told me that it was nearing 2AM when we finally settled. We had been speaking nonstop and evidently, inching towards each other the entire time. We were so close I could feel the heat emanating off his entire body. Our face were mere movements away from being able to touch one another, and as we lay on the soft grass, our bodies were mirrors of one another. Where his legs were tucked back, mine reached forward, where my spine naturally curved back, he was leaning forward. We were inches away from one another, and I could sense him, all of him. I could smell the scent I had long ago since associated with him, feel his heat, although we touched nowhere, I could feel his breath on my skin and I could hear the sounds of his chest moving up and down in time with that feeling. We were close. So close. Too close perhaps. We lay there for what felt like hours, but was likely only minutes, just staring at each other. His stormy blue eyes looked into my green ones and we just existed. Together.

Then, much in the same way a curse rolls in, smoke billowing and covering everything in sight, something began to change. His breathing grew heavier and I could feel my hear quicken, my breaths accelerating right along with it. Something in his eyes shifted, and instead of that just existing thing we'd been doing moments ago, there was suddenly something akin to wanting reflected there. I knew that it had to be visible in my own eyes as well, for I was certainly feeling it, too. A desire I hadn't felt in years was pooling in my abdomen and my skin tingled with electricity.

"Killian," I murmured, knowing that he could surely hear the longing in my voice. He growled, his voice deep in his throat, an animalistic sound escaping him, and rolled forward, capturing my lips with his. I had never been one to sit around and let the boys have all the fun, and this was no different. I gripped his lapels in my hands and pulled him tightly to me, so that our entire bodies were touching, running the lengths of one another. Something primal inside of me that I'd locked away for so long had been unleashed and there was no going back now. I rolled over, dragging him with me, and ending up straddling his hips, my hands pushing his chest down, pressing him into the ground, my lips still claiming his. His hand buried itself in my hair, gripping tightly as he held my head close to his. I could feel the pressure of his hook against my lower back, through the leather corset and blood red shirt I'd pilfered from someone's trunk. My lips were alight with excitement, tingling at the sensation of him. I let out a noise that was paramount to mewling and he growled possessively in return. I needed him. I needed him now. I sat up, still straddling his hips and began fussing with my corset, pulling at the strings harshly. Damn. I really needed to figure this thing out. Evidently my pause was enough for Killian to take a breath of air and think a bit too hard.

"Princess, wait."

"_Emma._" I growled, correcting him.

"Emma." I shivered. The word off his lips, in that delectable accent sounded almost sinful. "Emma, we should stop." I froze. "Don't think I don't want this, lass. Believe me. I do. But this is wrong."

"Since when do pirates have strong moral codes?"

"My moral compass may point a little shy of North, lass, but I believe in good form. And you, Emma, deserve better." I rolled my eyes.

"You're an idiot, did you know?" I leaned back in to kiss him, but he sat up, me still in his lap, and yet somehow avoided my lips.

"I mean it." He said gruffly, as though he were trying to convince himself as much as he was me. "You aren't some ordinary girl, love. You're a Princess."

"Don't be absurd, we're no different than-"

"That's not true. You may believe that you're just like the rest of us, you may try to be just like the rest of us, but at the end of the day, that's not true. You are raised to handle a hundred suitors at once and all the while maintain the grace and dignity required of your station. You are raised to be politically brilliant, have the heart to care for your people, and still appear a delicate, beautiful princess. You are so much more than most people could ever hope for, and you're different."

"I'm not!" I insisted, starting to get angry.

"You are. And not just because of who you are, but because of what is expected of you." He insisted. "You're going to marry a prince, or, or a very powerful enchanter, or, or…or I don't know! A duke! Or someone like that. Lass, people like that, they expect that their brides…retain their virtues. They expect…" He trailed off looking quite awkwardly at me, as though he were hoping I wouldn't make him say it.

"A virgin? Is that what you mean? They're expecting a virgin?" He nodded slowly.

"And you deserve that. For your first time to be with your husband. I won't take that away from you, lass."

"Damn. I was right. For a pirate you have the strongest moral code I've ever heard of." He forced a smile and avoided my eyes.

"It's just good form, lass. I apologize. I shouldn't have-"

"Yes. Yes you absolutely should have. You, you complete idiot, are not taking anything away from me. I'm afraid whatever Viscount or King or whatnot that I marry is going to be very disappointed when I tell him on my wedding night that I'm not the virgin he's been hoping for, but that's going to happen whether I sleep with you right now or not." His head tipped to the side. "Not a virgin. Haven't been, for a very, very long time."

"Oh." Was his simple reply.

"Now that we've got that settled…" I leaned in for another kiss but had to pull back and sigh when I saw how reluctant he was. "What is it now?"

"You're still a princess. And I'm still a pirate." He said simply. I shoved his chest hard, pushing him back into the grass, grinning at him and flipping my hair over my shoulder seductively.

"Bet I can make you forget that."

* * *

**Killian**

What in the hell had I just done?

Damn.

.

.

.

I was going to hell. I reached out and ran my hand over the soft skin on her shoulder, tracing her lines down her back, across the back of her rib cage until it rested on the pale skin on the swell of her rather remarkable ass. I made sure to stop and pause, fingering each of her tattoos – she hadn't been lying when she said she had more than one! – that rested on the path my fingers were taking. The Swan, resting calmly below her shoulder blade that inexplicably reminded me of her, the arrows on her ribcage, the Roman Numerals on her hip, I touched them, wondering, not for the first time, what exactly had possessed her to get them, what they meant to her. I wanted to know. I wanted to know everything about her and more. I wanted…I wanted…I wanted her. In every sense of the word. She moved in her sleep and her leg latched over mine, pulling my thigh between hers. I could feel my arousal peak at the thought of what could happen in this specific position and something else…something else was swelling in my chest. As I looked down at the naked Princess in my arms I realized two things. One: I was falling for her. Two: I was going to hell.

But if this what paved the road on the way down, it was going to be well worth it.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

*Marmota – this is Spanish for Groundhog. Basically, the realm Emma went to, to find Henry worked like Groundhogs Day. It repeated over and over which is why Emma still appears to be 18ish (her parents still thing she is 17 – the age she was when she left home with Baelfire, and she went into this realm when she was 19, after the witch stole Henry so that's her approximate age. Think how Emma looks in the flashbacks during the episode: Tallahassee.) Emma is actually like, 25ish in this fic.

**PLEASE REVIEW! THANK:)**


	20. Ink

**Emma**

"A swan?" He asks, his lips tracing the black ink delicately, barely touching me and yet sending shivers rampant across every inch of skin.

"You're going to laugh."

"I promise I won't."

"You will."

"On my honor as a pirate, love." I sighed.

"A blind witch once told me it was my spirit animal."

"Very good." He said, his face so serious I had to bite my lip to keep from giggling. "What in the hell is a spirit animal?"

"I'm not really sure, but she kept telling me that when she heard my voice and sensed my presence," (in particular my _magical_ presence, but this wasn't really a great time to go into the whole – product of true love, can do magic, kind of thing.) She saw a swan."

"And so you tattooed it onto your skin for the rest of your life because a blind witch claimed she could see it." He said in a deadpan.

"No!" I paused. "Not at first. I thought it was a bit odd, but then…well then I went down a darker path and ended up somewhere I didn't even recognize myself. I was…I wasn't the person that I _could_ be, you know." He nodded slowly. "By then I was so deep into the darkness I thought that it was my only choice, that this was who I was now and that was that. But then, one day, I came upon a lake and swimming inside it was a single swan. A crocodile was swimming towards it, surely ready to devour it and I was certain I was about to watch the bird be torn apart in a bloody, feathery mess. But just as the crocodile's jaws were about to close, the bird took off, into the sky and flew away. When I turned to look at the bird it was flying directly west and I found myself staring into the sun. Suddenly everything was so clear. It didn't matter how far down a path I was. I could always turn around." I took a deep breath. "I got it to remind myself that I choose who I am, not my circumstances, be they good or bad, not those around me, just me. So whether it is someone assuming I'm some privileged princess, or someone expecting me to be weak, or dark, or exactly like my mom, or whatever anyone expects of me, I know who I am." There was a long pause before he responded.

"Why on earth would I laugh at that, lass?"

"No one seems to see me, you know? I'm not exactly what people expect me to be. I have a few too many dark, twisty corners in my soul for that." Hook nodded, and for the first time in my life, I realized that the person I was speaking to _actually_ understood that sentiment. For the first time, someone I was with, _got_ it. An odd sort of peace washed over me and I felt vaguely like I was coming up for air after swimming underwater for too long.

In the moments that followed, we just lay there, together, just being. "You're turn, Captain." I said, cheerily. "Tell me about this one." I traced a long scar on his chest and he laughed.

"Blackbeard didn't take to well to my beating him at cards. Used my own hook against me, ripped it off my hand and held it to my throat, threatening to slice me open, claimed I was cheating. I dodged his intended would site but it caught in my shoulder instead. We were out at sea, no time to see a real doctor so Demetri stitched me back up with the thread and needle we use to mend sails and that was that. It does tend to leave a scar." He shook his head. "Cheating. What kind of man, accuses another with no proof whatsoever, of cheating?!" He looked disgusted and I couldn't help but ask.

"Well were you?"

"Of course! But he had no way of knowing that!" He was so adamant in his statement and I burst out laughing. When the laughter had died down his fingers found another spot, just above my ribs. "What about the Roman Numerals here, lass?" I took a deep breath.

"Those are the birthdate of someone very, very important to me."

"August 15th." He said simply. I nodded. "Your love?" Did I tell him? Did I admit to everything, did I break open that barrier? We had discussed everything under the sky except for our loves. Our personal lives. Did I open the floodgate and see what let itself loose?

"No." I said simply. He seemed to sense that I wished to move on and began to tell me about a scar that ripple up his back from a sword fight he'd been in with a crazy man who thought he was a wizard (He wasn't.) and the man's pet which the crazy fool claimed could turn into a dragon (the puppy was, alas, just a puppy). I showed him the spot on my leg where I'd burned myself trying to cook French Toast and he laughed.

"What on Earth does a Princess need to know how to cook for?" he guffawed.

"Hey! I may be a Princess, but give me the chance, and I can out eat any one of your men, good sir, so yeah. It works out pretty well for me to know how to cook."

"If you insist, lass. Okay, which scar next?" He held out his body, tipping back his head dramatically as he waited for me to make a decision. I raked my eyes over him, ignoring that tingle that accompanied the action. My eyes froze on his hook, and the contraption that held it in place. I didn't dare to breath, for fear that he would react badly, but I slowly reached up and began unclasping the buckles that held the leather straps in place. As soon as he realized what I was doing, he froze, unmoving.

"Lass," he breathed, a warning.

"Do you trust me?" I asked. He didn't respond, but I could see in his eyes that he was acquiescing. I slid off the contraption and pull his hook off his arm, finally touching the skin that lay beneath. He flinched and looked away, his eyes refusing to see his own appendage or my own curious orbs. The skin was slightly wrinkled underneath and had taken on a reddish hue, as though the contraption constantly rubbed it just a little too raw. "Does it hurt?" I asked quietly. His shrug told me enough. "If you could have it back, would you?" I asked, before rushing to clarify. "I don't mean go back in time. I don't mean change what happened. I mean if you could grow back your hand, would you?"

"What sort of question is that, Swan?"

"I'm asking you, if there were a wizard right here next to you, who could offer you your hand back, would you take it?"

"You're speaking nonsense." He sat up, effectively pushing me back and reached for his hook. He fastened it back in place with the ease of someone who has had more practice than you could imagine. (Every day for two hundred years is, in fact, a lot of practice.) He reached for his clothing next and began hurriedly to get dressed. Now that he was putting on his clothing, I suddenly felt incredibly naked and reached for my own. It slid on easily until I got to that damn leather corset. We were faced away from one another, things had suddenly grown very awkward and I was blushing furiously. Why had I done that? Why had I gone and asked such stupid questions? It was only…it was only that I suddenly had realized that I knew where his hand was. I had been in the Dark One's vaults not all that long ago, looking for answers, and I had seen a hand suspended in a glass jar and now it seemed so obvious, it was his. And if I got him back there…well…I could reattach it with magic. I could give him back his hand. But then again, how could I explain that without explaining to him that I had magic? Without ruining everything by making him even more wary of me. I couldn't. I swore as the leather ties cut at my fingers again and silence fell. He had stopped moving. I had stopped moving. Then, very slowly, his footsteps in the grass grew closer. I didn't dare turn around and look him in the eye. I felt him take the ties out of my hands and begin to pull the laces into their proper places. When they were tightly tied we both stood there, his breath hot on my neck, and my chest heaving as I breathed heavily at the thought of him so close to me. A brush of his fingers tickled the back of my neck as he swept my hair aside. For a moment, I thought that he mean to kiss me there but then, as suddenly as he had lifted his hand, its pressure disappeared from my neck and he stepped back.

"Hook," I said softly, not sure how to apologize but knowing that I had hurt him and for that I must surely apologize.

"Forget it Princess. We must get back to the camp, Demetri will worry."

"Hook."

"I said forget it." He snapped. "I certainly already have." It was as though someone had doused me in cold water. He had already forgotten? I don't know what I had expected, but his pretending we hadn't just had sex (three times!) wasn't exactly it. I didn't think we were going to run off and live happily ever after or some ludicrous thing like that and I certainly didn't expect for our conversation to suddenly become so romantic, but he had started the whole, 'tell me about your past, and your scars, and your tattoos' part of the conversation, not I! And if he was going to be a child about this whole affair, then fine! He was welcome to do that.

.

.

Though telling me to forget it was a useless command. How anyone could forget the way his lips caressed their skin, how his fingers felt as they traced over your body as though he were reading it, or how he felt as he held you in his arms and force you to such ecstasy the rest of the world ceased to exist, was beyond me. I'd just have to remember it in private.

.

.

It wasn't until we were halfway back to camp that I realized he'd called me Swan.

* * *

**Killian**

A Swan. A goddamned swan. That, was absolutely absurd. She wasn't some bird, she was a siren, poised and ready to kill any sea faring man who happened her way. But of course, she wouldn't kill the poor bastard who was unfortunate enough to stumble in her direction right off the bat, no. She would toy with the man first, make him her plaything, only to torture him and humiliate him. Then, only then, would she put him out of his misery and kill him. Well I wasn't about to give her a chance to further torture me, to make me her puppet as she had every one of my good for nothing crew. I was a man, not a strumpet's toy. And I simply wouldn't engage in her game. How I had let it get this far…how I had let _myself_ go that far, was…it was simply unimaginable. And yet I kept _imagining_ the way her skin tasted under my lips, the way her soft skin molded beneath my fingertips. My mind refused to stray too far from the way she bit her lip and tried to hold in any moan or whimper, but how they all came pouring out of her lips the moment I bit at her skin hard enough. Those soft, breathy sounds, the loud cries of joy and pleasure, the way she growled when she flipped me over, a lioness taking control of her all too willing prey, each sound making my heart beat faster, my skin buzz with excitement and anticipation, and began to slowly fill up that aching hole inside my chest. I felt tears welling in my eyes and I had to jab my leg with my hook to focus.

A goddamned swan. A vulture, more like. Feeding on the already dead souls of men who for some reason still walked the earth. A dead, empty shell. A vulture.

* * *

**Demetri**

It must have worked. It must have. They came back to camp, not speaking a word to one another, and avoiding the other like the plague. I hadn't thought it possible, but I very nearly think that they hate each other more now than when they first met. Hmm. Well that was…good. It was good, wasn't it?

.

.

.

But if it was good, then why did watching them storm away from each other to be on their own feel so utterly wrong?

* * *

**Emma**

He was a bastard. My levels of 'pissed off' were only growing by the second. He was…I was…ugh! Why did he have to be…_that_? He was my first…since Baelfire, I mean. It had been a while but _damn _if it hadn't felt right. I didn't regret it. I did, however, regret that Killian Jones, AKA Captain Hook, AKA Asshole extraordinaire, was a complete tool who couldn't handle having a freaking emotion or letting someone in for half a freaking second. Like he had the market on being messed up over lovers who were killed. Yeah. He had Milah. But I had Walsh, who had died when a dark fairy pushed him off a cliff over not paying back some debt or whatever. And then Eli, a boy from a neighboring kingdom who had been courting me, who got trampled by an ogre. And then there was Baelfire. My true love. The father of my child. (Who had also died, by the way, Captain Guyliner.) So Hook didn't get to prance around like a complete ponce because he had lost someone in his life. And damned if I was about to let him get away with this.

* * *

**Author's Note: Shorter than usual but I wanted to get something out to you guys and the next bit isn't coming together just right, so that may be a bit yet. Hope you enjoy! PLEASE review!**

**Xoxo - E**


	21. Thwarted

**Emma**

"I'd be careful if I were you, captain. You may not care about a scratch, but my friends here, well, all of our weapons? Dripped in Dreamshade."

"Back!" The command from Killia-Hook was instantaneous. At Pan's comment he didn't so much as blink before ordering us all to take a step away from the children armed with child like weaponry.

"Ah yes. I forgot. You have some experience with the toxin." Pan's words dripped of snark. "Your brother, was it not?"

"What do you want, demon?"

"I want the firstborn child of that girl behind you. And I shall get it one way or another."

"She doesn't have a firstborn child. She _is_a child. Why don't you let us go on our merry way and we'll come back in a few years when she's older, yes?" Hook suggested, tipping his nonexistent hat and turning from Pan, grabbing my arm, trying to pull me away.

"Not so fast. I did a little...research. As it turns out, the bint lied to me." I stilled. I had, of course. I had lied to him a lot. Which lie was he worried about now? "17, I was told. 17 the young girl was. And when I said as much she didn't refute me."

"You are sprouting nonsense again, child." Hook responded with a snarl.

"Oh really? So it shocks you to know that the 'girl' in question is 23 years old?"

"25." I spat out. "Actually. "The 'girl' in question is 25. And if it shocks _you_ to know that I lied to you, then perhaps you would do well to remember that I was locked up in a cage at the time. You'll have to forgive me if my trust failed to abound."

"And yet you, like so many of us on this island, have, shall we say, retained your youthful glow." Pan sneered.

"Neverland is not the only place where time stands still." A hint of recognition flashed across Hook's face as he recalled my tales of other realms.

"Is that so?" Pan asked, leering at me. "Well then I have no qualms whatsoever about my next steps. Felix. Bring her to me. She shall bear my child and I shall have the heart I need." An inhuman snarl rang through the air as Killian stepped in front of me, sword suddenly drawn.

"Worth that much to you, is she?" Pan asked mockingly. "I'm not planning on killing her. You can have her back when I'm done." I could feel fury, welling up inside me. He planned to...ugh. Either way. He wouldn't get what he wanted. My firstborn son, was dead. He couldn't have him. I couldn't have him. Henry was gone, dead. The anger began to swirl inside me and I could feel the magic, itching, pulling at my skin, dying to get out. I couldn't hold it in much longer. It was then that I realized, why should I hold it in? Hook hated me either way. The crew needed me to get out of here. And we were in, how to say it? A pickle. Pan might kill my friends if we didn't get out of here soon. If there was ever a time to use my magic, it was now.

"Step aside, Hook." I snarled. "This isn't your fight."

"Awww. The Princess is angry!" Pan laughed. "Adorable really." A ball of fire welled up in my palm and the air around me was suddenly silent, as the pirates I had called friend backed away, in shock.

"You twisted little fiend." I growled, throwing the fire in his direction. He dodged it, but his mien had very quickly taken a serious turn. "You think to take me as though I am some object that can belong to one man or another?" Another fireball sent his way, this time, causing Pan to draw his own fireball, holding it threateningly, looking directly at me. "You are a fool. You are a fool to think that I am so weakly taken, by one man or another. You are a fool to think I would allow others to fight for me when I am clearly very capable of fighting for myself."

"When did you get magic, wench? Have you stolen it from the fairy? You weren't always this way. I recall. The night I took you from your bed, you took my hand. You followed meekly. You were weak."

"It wasn't weakness." I hissed. "_You_ lied to _me._I thought you were death, coming to take me away. A dark shadow flew to me in the middle of night and said it would take me to my son. I believed it. I took its hand, thinking it would take me to the world of the dead. But this is not that place. You lied, Pan. And I shall kill you for it."

"You wished to die?"

"I wish every day that I was dead. Those I love have passed on and I would be with them in a heartbeat if I could."

"I am happy to assist you in your endeavor, Princess. But first, I shall have your firstborn from you." He said with a smirk.

"Then you will have to follow me into hell itself."

"Don't be so bleak. I can hurry the process along. And _then_ kill you."

"You misunderstand me. If you are looking for my firstborn, you are too late, Pan. Take it up with the Witch Clarissa."

"You speak in riddles wench."

"My firstborn child is dead. Curtesy of Clarissa of Cilcia. If there were any possible way to get him back I would have done it by now. He is lost. Forever." My voice had cracked and I could feel tears streaming down my face but they did not make me weak. I would not break. He had fueled the fire that was in my soul, the fury over the loss of my Henry. "You have done all of this for naught. You are far too late. And now, without his heart, you will die. But not before I make you pay for what you have done to me and what you have done to my friends, but most of all, what you planned to do to my son." A shot of magic streamed from my hand towards the tiny demon, and he met it halfway, with a shot of his own. It was small, weak. He was loosing by an exceptional amount. Without even trying my magic shot closer and closer to him and he began quivering, from the exertion, and very likely from nerves.

"Please!" He screamed, seemingly not quite sure what he was begging for. After another moment I closed my fist, stopping the stream of energy.

"I will let you live. And I will watch as the magic fueling this island runs out and you loose what you so desperately hold dear. But not before I cash in on our deal." I turned to the Lost Boys. "Pan has agreed that all who wish to leave the island and be reunited with their parents may come with us when we depart. Know that the magic keeping you young will run out, and soon. But more than that, know that Pan didn't so much as blink an eye when I asked for you to join us. He does not care about you, never did. Your parents, however, as someone who has lost a child I can tell you with the most utmost certainty, that they are looking for you. That even if they have been assured that you are dead, they never really stop looking for you. They want you back, and they will do whatever they can to make that a reality. We shall be soon departing. Those who wish to return are welcome."

"Emma," Demetri asked gruffly. "We still don't know how to leave the island."

"His mind is weak." I said, nodding at Pan. "He does not guard his secrets well. Why should he? He doesn't make regular dealings with those that might be able to explore them. The star map, it is more than that. It can hold his shadow. We need to capture it and use it to fly us out of here. And I have a pretty good idea as to how to do that."

* * *

**Hook**

Twenty Five. I knew she was older than her looks suggested. She had mentioned a world where time had stopped before. It make sense, I guess. (In all honesty, it made me feel a bit better about sleeping with her. Not much. But a bit.) Apparently I wasn't the only one who felt that way.

"Is that so?" Pan asked, leering at her in a way that made my skin crawl. "Well then I have no qualms whatsoever about my next steps. Felix. Bring her to me. She shall bear my child and I shall have the heart I need." I recognized the noise that rang through the air as my own as I forced myself between the Lost Boys and Emma. My sword was drawn and I could feel my heart pumping faster than usual. He wished to bed the Princess. Against her will. Enough to impregnate her and then take the child for some nefarious purpose. I would die before that happened.

The next few moments unfolded in a manner that I couldn't quite explain. So much information unfolded that set my head spinning. She had magic. A great deal of it, and powerful too. She had come to this island because she had thought that Pan's shadow had meant to kill her. She had _wanted_ to die. She had born a child, a son. And he had been killed. She had made a deal to ensure the safety of the Lost Boys. She had taken away all that Pan had been searching for, for years, the very reason he stole boys from their beds. He had been looking for her son. And now she defied him in a way that I could barely comprehend.

She had a son. She had lost him. I had seen what leaving her son on purpose had done to Milah. Imagine the pain in knowing that her child was dead and gone and there was nothing she could do for it. No wonder she had wanted to die, to be with her child. I closed my eyes. There was nothing I could do to fix this. There was nothing I could do to make her happy, to help her. She was lost, and I had been blessed with a few intertwining moments, but someone so lost could never truly belong to someone like me. She could never be mine. She was too far lost. A Lost Girl.

.

"This isn't happening." Pan was groaning. "It isn't possible! Your firstborn is to have the Heart of the Truest Believer. A witch wouldn't just kill a child like that." The pain in Emma's eyes was immense at this conversation and I made my way to the boy.

"She has decided to spare you. To allow you to live your life out, the rest of your years in peace simply knowing that you have lost." I hissed at him. "But I may not be so kind and forgiving. I will torture you every day for the rest of your miserable life if I have to. So shut up while I'm feeling inclined to follow her lead on this."

"You don't understand! None of you understand! Her firstborn child was foretold. It was to be of the lines of lightest and darkest magic. His mother was to be the product of true love and his father from a line of dark magic like no other. His father was to be a dark lord in his own right."

"Baelfire wasn't dark!" Emma roared, turning on Pan. "He _wasn't _dark. He was good in a way you could never understand."

"And his father?" Pan asked with a smirk. "Tell me of Rumpelstiltskin. Is he so light and wonderful?" Emma's boot found Pan's face before she stormed away and I was amidst laughing when I realized what she had said. Baelfire. Emma's son belonged to Baelfire. They had been…together. Intimate. Very likely…very likely in love. It wasn't for certain. But it stood to reason, that the man Emma had loved with all her heart and soul, the man whose child she had fathered, that man, was the love of her life. Which meant that at some point, Emma had killed Baelfire. Emma had killed Milah's son.

* * *

**Author's Note: I'm awful. I know. I promised updates and I've taken fiveever. (As in LONGER than forever.) I'm SOOOOOO sorry! I hope that you'll forgive me and I really, really, REALLY, hope that you review and let me know what you think about how this story is unfolding! xoxo -E**


	22. A Study on Stars

**Author's Note: Heads up, the rating has officially changed to a soft MA. (For here there be smut...) It's still pretty lowkey smut but as it _does_ exist in this chapter and it will, in all likelihood continue to escalate from here. I hope you all like it and PLEASE review:)**

**ALSO - Please be sure you read the last chapter (Ch. 21) Because this is my second post on this story this week so I want to make sure everyone sees them both. I feel so badly for having abandoned you for so long that I wrote super duper fast and had two chapters ready for you fine people. Here is number 2!**

* * *

**Hook**

"She's gone." Demetri said, with a great deal of certainty. "Missing." I swore loudly, making one of the Lost Boys jump. Emma had run. That I understood. When a Lost person felt cornered, upset, scared...we ran.

"And you've just given up searching? A Princess is lost on Neverland. Find her. Now." I commanded.

"Captain, it's growing dark. How are we expected to -"

"I said find her."

"You heard the man." Demetri shouted, and yet there was some hesitancy, some sort of...something in his voice. As though he disapproved. "Get into groups of three or four and head out. Whoever finds her, send up a flare and whoever sees it go running. Convince her to come back to us. That's an order. Go." My crew along with a few timid Lost Boys got into groups and began to split off into the woods.

"Demetri." I said gruffly. "You're with me."

"You're going looking for her, too?" He asked, surprised.  
"Of course I am. What a ridiculous question."

"Great! Because none of the guys wanted to go with me. Now I have a group!" Connor. That son of a bitch. But sure enough, the rest of the crew had somehow begged off being paired up with him and now Demetri and I were stuck with him. Shit.

Half an hour later we were walking through the forest, Connor talking our ears off with the sort of conversation that made me want to hit him.

"...and she can do magic! How insane is that? Did any of you see that coming?" Demetri cleared his throat like he did every time he lied.

"You knew." I said, accusatorily. He looked up at me sheepishly. "You knew?! How did you know?"

"She told me." He admitted. Right before we rescued you. She wanted to use magic to help rescue you but she's had trouble in the past, people discriminating against her because of her abilities." Did everyone know about her but me? I knew she had spent a great deal of time with them on her own, but I found myself wondering if Demetri knew more about her than I. All those things she told me, those things I had thought were secrets, things she had only entrusted with me...well it turned out I was wrong. She had told Demetri even more than she had me.

"I see. Did she say anything else when the two of you were sharing secrets? Something that might tell us where she went?" My voice dripped with bitterness and I angrily slash at some foliage in my way.

"Captain..." Demetri protested.

"Maybe she went back to the Jolly." Connor suggested.

"Evan and Owen went to wait at the Jolly. They'd have sent a flare up if they'd found her." Demetri suggested.

"I only say that because we were talking late into the night last week and she mentioned how beautiful she thought it was."

"What the hell are you talking about lad?" I asked, thoroughly confused. I knew for a fact that they hadn't been up at night talking last week because _I_ had been up talking to her each night, singing her to sleep in my arms, and I knew for a fact that the boy had been thoroughly asleep.

"At which point I told her how beautiful I thought she was, and then we...well...a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell, eh Captain? Wouldn't be good form." I gripped his collar and pulled him up.

"No he does not. Nor does he suggest that he had some sort of assignation with a lady when he is very clearly lying. If you thought to make up a lie about a lady in order to further your own reputation among your friends, you clearly don't understand good form."

"I'm not lying!" He insisted. "After everyone was asleep she would wake and up the two of us would talk the night away. It was very romantic." He insisted. That lying little shit.

"And what would you talk about?" I asked, snorting out a laugh.

"She would tell me about her family and all of the balls she went to," She hated dancing at balls. It made her feel like a prize at a fair. Nice try. "And she told me that she missed her friends and wanted to be back home with all the other princesses." Wrong again. She detested most of the princesses she was forced to associate with. She thought them vapid and insipid and she hated being stuck at home. She longed for adventure. "And then she told me about her bedroom at the top of the highest tower of her castle and how she loved to decorate it with the latest styles and-" Her bedroom was on the second floor. I had been there when her parents had hired me and wanted me to know a bit about her. And the highest tower wouldn't be a bedroom anyway! She had told me that it was the astronomer's tower and how much she loved to go up there and look out the windows and the glass ceiling up at the stars at night...

"Oh my God. I know where she is." I dropped Connor.

"See! I told you I knew her-"

"Say that again and I swear I'm going to deck you, lad." I swore under my breath. "You're making the lot of that up and I will punish you for it later. After I know she's safe." I changed my course of direction and took off. The cliffs. The Neverland Cliffs. Rising high above the tree line, you could sit up there and stare at the stars as they shifted and danced across the sky. The stars that were different in every realm. The stars that she loved to look at. The ones that brought her peace knowing that her loved ones were looking at the same stars. Maybe even those who had passed away. Maybe even her son.

* * *

**Emma**

My compass had led me here. I wasn't sure how that worked, I hadn't even known a place like this existed in Neverland, and yet, here I was. The place I wanted to be more than any other at that moment. On the edge of a Cliff. Leaning back on my hands. Looking up at the stars. Wondering if, wherever Henry was right now, wherever Baelfire was, wherever my family was, they were looking up at the same stars.

Well that had gone to hell sooner than I had thought. I couldn't hold it in another minute. My magic just came pouring out, in hot waves of fury. I couldn't help but remember how Hook had stepped between us the moment he heard what Pan had been intending to do to me. Was it to protect me, so that he could deliver me unharmed to my parents and reap his reward, his crocodile? Or was it because he genuinely wanted to protect me? As a friend. Maybe even more than that. I had feelings for him. I couldn't run away from that, not here, not on this island that forced secrets and lies out into the open. I had feelings for him. And that terrified me. I hadn't had feelings like this since Baelfire.

No. That wasn't true. The feelings I had for Bae were true and honest, but they were the feelings of a child who didn't know herself. Then I had his child and I loved him as the father of my child, the man who sacrificed himself so that my son could have his best chance possible. And I would always love him for that. But with Killian...Killian understood me in a way that no one ever had before. I had a darkness in my past. I had a hard, rugged heart. I had experienced pain in a way most people only thought happened in the stories. And Killian, he understood that. Not only being different than what others thought of you, but he understood my darkness, my pain. Being with him, talking to him, it was like a weight was being lifted off my shoulders and I was allowed to breath.

Of course he was also a complete ass and made me so mad I wanted to punch his stupid face.

So yeah I guess you could say I was still working out my feelings for him.

A movement behind me made me tense up, holding a ball of knockout energy in my palm. No strike came, however, and after a few moments, a man clad in black leather sat down beside me. We sat in silence for a minute before I finally couldn't hold it in any longer.

"I know you don't like magic so don't worry. I won't use it unless absolutely necessary." He let out a short, burst of breath, sounding almost indignant.

"Don't be absurd. It's not magic I hate, it's the only man I've ever seen use it. To hide your gifts...who you are..." He sighed. "That would be dishonorable for me to even ask, lass." I looked at him sidelong.  
"I should have told you."

"You didn't feel like you could. I understand. Magic can be a touchy subject among some groups."

"I don't just mean the magic. You knew Baelfire. He was the son of your true love. I should have told you that he was the one..." I trailed off, unable to say it. "And about Henry. You asked about the dates. His birthday. And the day he was taken from me." I shook my head. "I wish I had told you."

"I wish I had told you a few things too." He said quietly. "About Milah. My tattoo. And...a few other things." He glanced back. "Mate, head back to the ship. Call everyone back together. We're gonna hang out for a bit. Get some fresh air for the Princess. Then we'll meet up with you lot on the Jolly." I glanced around and saw Demetri nodding, turning to go.

"Fresh air actually sounds really good right now!" A chipper voice piped up. Damn. Connor.

"Okay, lad. You can stay on one condition. Answer me this question right and you're welcome to stay with us." Was he mental? Connor could absolutely NOT stay with us!

"Of course!"

"What's the Princesses favorite color?" Killian asked cheerfully.

"What?"

"You said you spent so much time with her every night. That the two of you talked of everything under the sun. So you must have at some point gleaned her favorite color. Tell me, boy. What is it?"

"That's just such an easy question. I thought you were going to make me work for it."

"Not at all lad! Just answer the question. What is the Princess Emma's favorite color?"

"Well, it's...pink. Obviously."

"I hate pink. The only color worse than pink is orange." I responded dryly.

"In fact, her favorite color is blue. So I suppose you'll now be heading back to the ship with Demetri."

"But I-"

"Now boy." Killian's voice was hard and filled with a certain finality and Connor scurried off after the first mate.

"How did you do that?"

"Would you believe that the entire way out here he was trying to convince me that the pair of you stayed up every night together for the last couple of weeks and that you really got to know each other? I knew that was complete shite so I figured I could test him on it."

"No, I mean, how did you know my favorite color?" After a long pause he smiled off into the night and answered.

"Your eyes are drawn to blue. The sky, the sea, when you're looking around at a landscape, it is those blue things that make you smile, that you focus on. I suppose I just assumed."

"It used to be green, you know." I said quietly.

"What made you change?"

"I saw a pair of eyes that spoke of depth and a pain that I could relate to. Finally. There was someone who understood me. And he had the most beautiful blue eyes." Our eyes met, staring into each other, the heat suddenly palpable.

"Emma..." He trailed off, his fingers reaching forward and burying themselves in my hair. "This is a bad idea." He warned, his voice telling a different story. "This is...I'm no good, Emma."

* * *

**Killian**

"I'm no good, Emma." I forced myself to speak, to push her away, to make her see sense and make a decision that was good for her. I was speaking with all the honesty I could manage. I was no good. Not for her.

"If I wanted good I'd have married one of the pompous suitors that came calling in the last few years." She said, leaning closer to me. My stomach clenched at the thought of her wedding some prince. That was a ridiculous sensation. I had no claim on the girl. I knew in my head that she should return to her family, that she should marry a prince or a king or someone who would provide her with the life she deserved. I knew that. I _wanted_ that for her. But the thought of some idiot without the sense to know what a treasure he possessed in my Swan putting his hands on her made me want to cut into their flesh with my hook. The idea of another making her moan for him the way I had under the stars made me see red. The thought of another man putting his lips on her, putting his hands on her, _fucking_ her...a possessive growl ripped through me as I pulled her to me and latched my lips upon hers. She too, was gripping me tightly, pulling at my clothes, lips and teeth gnashing against one another.

"Don't." I growled as I nipped at the skin on her neck.

"Don't what?" She responded breathlessly, her fingers wound into my hair, pulling with a slight pain that only spurred me on.

"Don't joke about that."

"You don't think I should marry some half-wit prince with a great deal of money, or a big army to protect me?" She teased, her hips rolling up into mine. I wasn't sure if it was her words or her actions but my need to possess her grew.

"If you need protection, you've got a band of bloodthirsty pirates wrapped around your finger, lass. Need money? I'll steel it for you. No need at all to marry some prick who isn't good enough for you. Problem solved." I insisted. My hand pulled at her bodice, needing to feel her warm, soft flesh beneath my skin.

"I want you." She breathed, her hands removing themselves from my hair and making their way quickly down to my waistband. "Gods Killian. I_need_ you. Now." Her lithe fingers pulled at the laces of my pants, hurriedly ridding me of the unnecessary clothing. I was stiff and at attention, my excitement pressing up towards my stomach. As soon as she had rid me of my pants her hands were on my cock, rubbing frantically, her breath coming out in matching pants.

"Fuck, swan." I breathed out. The exact chain of events that followed were a bit fuzzy but I very clearly remembered pressing her up against a tall thick, tree trunk and thrusting against her thighs as I lifted her right leg and wrapped it around my hips. She was still in most of her clothing where as mine had disappeared, curtesy of her talented fingers. I was thrusting against her excitedly, listening to her moaning into the night, rolling her hips back towards me and meeting my movements. I used my hook to rip down her corset, allowing her beautiful breasts to be free in the brisk night air. With a groan of satisfaction, I leaned forward and buried my face in her bosom. Licking and sucking at the ample flesh allowed me, I could feel my erection harden even more fully. "Gods Emma."

"Fuck me, Killian." She begged, her voice high, the pitch wavering as I smirked in pleasure at home much I was clearly effecting her. Pulling her clothing off as quickly as a one handed man with a hook could, I took a moment to stop and stare at the beauty before me. "Please!" She begged. I gripped her hips and lined up at her entrance, her leg still thrown over my hips, her hands gripping my shoulders as though they were her salvation. Without waiting another moment, I thrust upward as hard as I could, impaling her in one swift movement.

I was frozen. Her hot, wet heat surrounded me, and I couldn't move. She let out a soft sob of pleasure and gripped me tightly.

"Fuck, Killian." She whispered in my ear. "Don't stop." I wasn't planning on it. My lips latched to her neck, desperate to leave some mark of my claim on her. I sucked the skin their heartily as my hips began to thrust into her of their own accord. Back and forth, we met each other stroke for stroke. Her nails ripped down my back, certainly leaving marks and very likely drawing blood as I left a pattern of bruises down her neck, across her collar bone and all over her breasts. Her tight cunt gripped my cock with fervor, clamping down and caressing me as we thrust into each other. We were one. As we should have been. As we were meant to be.

* * *

**Emma**

I came with a whimper as his teeth clamped down on my breast simultaneously to his cock thrusting up into me. His orgasm didn't follow far behind. We sank to the grass at the base of the tree and lay there, him still inside me, our limbs still intertwined, our breath still hot on one another's skin.

"Don't leave me." He whispered quietly into my neck. That fool. How could I ever leave him?


	23. There's No Place Like Home

**Author's Note: An extra long chapter to show how much I love you! Your guys are freaking amazing and I'm so proud that all of you are reading and enjoying my fic. (Hopefully;) anyway - PLEASE review! I would love to know what everyone is thinking and at the number of views this story is getting its really weird that there are NO reviews:( I updated twice last week so make sure that you've read both of them before you get to this! Yay! xoxo - E**

* * *

**Killian**

I wanted her. Not just her body. I wanted her soul, her spirit, I wanted her...I wanted her to be _mine._I wanted to claim her. I wanted every other man on my ship, every man on this island, everyone, to know that she was taken, that I had claimed her, that she belonged to _me._ We fit. We fit together in a way I hadn't known was possible. It wasn't just passion (though to be certain, there was more than enough between the lass and I). It wasn't just that we were friends, that we got on like a ship and the ocean. (Though once again, that was certainly a part of it. I do believe that Emma Nolan was fast becoming one of my best friends.) It was all of that and more. She was...everything. Everything that mattered in the world, paled in comparison to Emma. She was the sun and the moon, the stars and the sky. She was the ocean I sailed upon, the soft green grass under my feet when I made port. She was the thing that made my heart beat. My old, cold, dead heart that had sat silently in my chest for hundreds of years had suddenly begun to beat again. And I don't think I could survive without it again. I needed her like I needed air. She had very quickly become my life.

And while we lay together in a post-coital heap on the forest floor, panting into each other's skin, my face pressed hotly against her neck, her legs still wrapped haphazardly around my hips, her hot center still gripped onto my cock, sheathing me like a sword, I realized all of this. Kissing her neck softly I whispered into her skin, half hoping she would hear me, and half hoping she didn't notice I was speaking. "Don't leave me." I begged, knowing full well that a completion of this mission meant exactly that. She would leave me.

* * *

**Emma**

It became a nightly ritual. We sat by the fire, side by side. We talked about everything or we didn't say a word. It didn't matter. Just being with him made me feel like I belonged somewhere, like I had someone who understood me. Then after everyone fell asleep, we would sneak off into the woods and utilize that privacy as fully as we knew how. Some nights it was fucking. Hard, physical sex, that was more akin to a primal rutting than a romantic overture. Other times we shared something that could only really be described as making love. It was as though I had found this other half of myself that I hadn't known existed. He was quickly becoming something I was so dependent on, it scared me half to death. The people I had been with before, the people I had loved, well...loving me didn't turn out well for most of them. When I expressed my fears to Killian one night he had smiled at me softly, tipping my head up with his hand and kissed the tip of my nose.

"You don't have to worry about me, love." He said with a bright smile. "I'm a survivor." Of course, the longer and longer we stayed on Neverland, the more questions the crew had asked. I had captured Pan's shadow. We had seemingly everything we needed to get off the island, to go back to the Enchanted Forest.

To return me to my parents.

That was really why we hadn't left yet. Killian and I were putting it off knowing that as soon as we left we would have to decide what to do. Did he bring me back to my parents? They were worried sick, of course, and without it he wouldn't be able to enact his revenge on Rumpelstiltskin. Then again, if I returned they wouldn't let me out of their sight, and they were hardly about to let a pirate captain, particularly one with the reputation that Hook had court their daughter. We would be separated. If they even caught a whiff of what had been happening between us Regina would bind me to the castle and they would exile Hook with all the force of the royal navy. But we couldn't stay here forever. The Crew and the Lost Boys and Tink, they were all anxious to leave. They wanted off of Neverland. And we owed it to them to leave soon.

* * *

Hook's fingers intertwined with mine.

"What do you want to do, love?" He asked.

"Right now?" I asked teasingly, trying to put off the conversation I knew he was trying to have. "Well right now I would very much like to lick-"

"Be serious Swan." He said, whispering his nickname for me in a way that made me shiver.

"I am." I pouted. "I really do want to-"

"You know what I mean."

"So you don't want to just lie here and talk dirty to each other?" I asked, trying one last time. He smirked and nibbled on my earlobe.

"Maybe later. For now, we need to figure out what we're going to do."

"I don't want you to leave me." I said, my voice coming out small and quiet. "I can't bear the thought of watching your ship disappear over the horizon, me sitting up in my tower, all alone." He gripped me and pulled me tightly to him.

"Love that's the last thing I want."  
"But, the crew deserves to get out of here. We need to return the Lost Boys home and help them find their families, those what have them left. We need to help Tink get her magic back. We need to get you the Dark One and end his power for good." He tensed at that.

"About that, Emma," He began, trailing off. "Killing the Dark One...well...I don't know how important that is on the list anymore. Killing him would mean I have to take his place and before, when I was wallowing in my darkest place I thought it would be no different from where I was. But now...I can be a better man than that. I want to be a better man for you Swan." I curled up into him.

"I would never ask you to change." I told him.

"I know."

"But I don't think I can lose you. And if you were to be the Dark One...you wouldn't be Killian." He nodded.

"In that case, I do believe that wherever your parents have locked him up remains the best place for him." He took a deep breath. "But you are right about the Lost Boys and about Tink and my crew. Which means that we will have to go back, face your parents."

"I'm not ready to tell them everything, about Henry or Baelfire...I don't think I could bear that."

"Of course not, love. You shouldn't have to relive that." He assured me. He paused. "I, in no way, wish to hide our love. But if it means that the Enchantress Regina will try to rip us apart, then perhaps we don't tell them right away. Perhaps we go back, do what we need to, and then when our affairs are in order, we tell them that we are in love and that we don't plan on changing that. Then if they don't accept us we can immediately sail away and if we do, I can court you at your home."

"You are my home." I said. "I don't want to live there. I want to stay on the Jolly with you. I want to sail the seas with you. I want to go on every adventure with you. I don't want to be cooped up anymore."

"You would sail with me? Live on the Jolly?" He seemed surprised.

"I want nothing more than to be by your side forever. I love the ocean, sailing, adventures. I want to be free, with you." He burst into a smile and gripped my lips in a kiss.

"I love you." He murmured, kissing the skin of my eyelids, the tip of my noise, my cheeks, every inch of my skin he could reach. "That will be our plan then. Return home, reject their offer of the Dark One, do our duty by those we bring back with us, and then we shall sail away into the sunset together." I nodded.

"Yes." I whispered. We kissed gently for a few more moments before I pulled back and smirked at him. "So about that whole laying here and talking dirty thing..."

* * *

As the Jolly Roger took flight, my heart was caught in my throat. Too many variables. Too many ways for this whole thing to go desperately, horribly wrong. I couldn't lose him. I couldn't. The culmination of my journey to the Gates of Hell and back would define me, define who I was. Was I the sort who let others take from me? Or was I the sort who could love again? The kind who is stronger because of their past, who understands the losses she's had to face and has become a better, stronger, fighter because of that. I wouldn't just let them separate me from Killian without a fight. I wouldn't let them keep us apart.

But I also knew, that for all we hoped and talked about how my parents, Regina, Robin, the whole lot of them might be understanding of us, there was no way in hell, my family would be okay with my hoping onto a pirate ship the moment I'm back from Neverland and running off with Captain Hook.

Which meant that I had a hell of a fight ahead of me. And I was ready for it.

* * *

**Killian**

"The honor was mine, your majesties." I said, sweeping into a low bow. Emma was wrapped into a tearful hug from both her mother and father, Queen Regina holding Robin Hook in an embrace of relief.

"Thank God." Snow White was murmuring. "Emma we've been so worried!" She sobbed.

"Missed you, mom." She said simply, holding her mother tightly. After a few more admissions of love from all the parties present, Emma was finally able to step back and grin at her family.

"Darling, don't take this the wrong way," her mother began cautiously. "But what exactly are you wearing?" I bit my lip to hold in a laugh. I had suggested she fix up her dress and look presentable for her parents before we return, but she had just rolled her eyes and said she was never wearing one of those torture devices again. It was to be leather and cotton for her from now on.

"My dress was torn to bits in the travel to Neverland." She said by way of explanation. "The pirates were kind enough to offer me some of their clothing to wear for the duration of my stay."

"That corset is in no way man's clothing." Regina pointed out dryly, giving me a pointed stare.

"Emma is not the first lady to sail the Jolly."

"Emma?" Her father suddenly stared at me, his brow furrowed.

"Excuse me, Majesties." Demetri interrupted. "We plan on being in town for a week or so yet, but some of the crew are leaving to go visit family now that they're in port. They won't return until just before we set sail. They were hoping to say goodbye to the Princess?" Snow pulled back, a small look of confusion on her face. Of course the crew didn't know that Emma was planning on coming with us when we departed. We couldn't trust them (and by them I meant Connor) to keep it to themselves around the royals. The door was opened and surrounded by wary looking guards, the entirety of my crew made their way into the ballroom. "Oh my." Snow said, her voice slightly smaller than it had been moments ago. "Princess." Demetri said, bowing over her hand. "It's been a true honor." She pulled back her hand and glared at him teasingly.

"I'm sorry, what did you just call me?" She asked indignantly. "Three months. You'd think a guy would learn by now." She shook her head and Demetri colored slightly.

"Emma." He corrected himself, shyly opening up his arms. She flew into them, hugging him tightly. "

"You've been incredibly." She whispered against him. "I don't know what I would have done without you."

"Very likely kill my Captain." He suggested. "And I can't say I'd have blamed you." A peel of her laughter filled my ears and my heart swelled happily. He chortled for a few moments before turning to the rest of them. "Well come on you." He called out. "She's not going to bite!" The look on the King and Queen's face as a herd of pirates swarmed their daughter, hugging her in the middle was priceless. I even caught a few of my men tearing up. Little did they know. She'd be back on board within the fortnight.

"All right men. Let the lass breath." I commanded after the adieus stretched on just a bit too long.

"Mother," Emma said, staring directly at me. "Perhaps we could host a ball at week's end. Before the pirates leave port, to thank them for their assistance in my rescue." Snow looked shocked to say the least.

"You would _like_ to go to a ball?" She asked, deadpanning.

"My friends certainly deserve the recognition, do they not?" She asked, avoiding the question.

"Indeed." Snow White nodded. "One week from today. You are all invited to our palace for a ball in your honor." The men nodded their thanks, thankfully holding in the rousing cheer that would normally great the announcement of free food and booze and a bunch of pretty ladies in elaborate gowns.

"Thank you for receiving us, Your Majesty." Demetri said bowing. "Men." He called out, nodding towards the door. They followed him instantly, leaving me standing alone, looking hard at my love, trying to memorize every curve of her face before I was separated from her.

"I suppose I shall see you in a week then." She said awkwardly. I took her had in mine and bowed over it, placing a chaste kiss on her knuckles.

'Until then, lass." She rolled her eyes in the way that only she could, provoking a smile onto my lips and pulled me into a hug.

"Meet me tonight." She whispered in my ear. "The Garden on the North side of the palace." I squeezed her hand to let her know I had heard her and bowed once more to the royals.

"As I said," I spoke up. " It was an honor to serve the crown."

"Wait, Captain Hook." the King said, holding his hand out. "Your payment. Shall I lead you to him now, or would you prefer to collect him at the end of the week?" There was something suspicious in his voice and his eyes were narrowed in my direction. This was a test. And yet for the life of me, I hadn't the slightest clue as to what the correct answer was.

"I do believe that the Dark One is in the best place possible. I shall leave him in your care." I nodded at him.

"We must repay your heroism!" Snow exclaimed.

"I'm no hero, your majesty. I'm just a man who did his job. Your kind offering to treat my men at week's end is more than enough payment."

"Nonsense." Regina spoke now. "You did the job you were hired for. We shall pay you in some way now."

"I insist." Snow said with a smile.

"I'm afraid I cannot accept. Your daughter saved our lives just as much as we saved hers." I replied. "It wouldn't be good form to accept payment for simply doing the right thing."

"As a reward then." She pushed.

"I'm afraid I must insist otherwise. If you wish to do something to honor the actions of my crew, I would only ask that you assist the Lost Boys in finding their families. I must bid my farewell now. My ship is in need of her Captain." I cleared my throat. "Your majesties, I thank you. Emma," I trailed off not able to say a word of what I wanted to in front of the others. "It's been an honor lass." I turned on my heel and walked out of the grand ballroom, my heart in my throat knowing I had just turned my back and walked away from such a girl without even a protest. Even knowing I would see her this very night, I knew this wasn't an action I could repeat again.

* * *

**Emma**

"I can't tell you how horrid these past weeks have been." My mother said tearfully. "Come, my dear. Let us get you changed into fresh clothes." I found myself staring out the door Killian had just left through.

"Hmm? Oh. A bath would be nice. But I'll be far more comfortable in these clothes than a gown just now."

"Emma, please. Tell me what happened." Dad said with a worried look on his face.

"Pan wanted my firstborn. It had nothing to do with me, just the fact that I'm the product of True Love and all. Apparently it makes my biological line that much stronger or whatever."

"Your firstborn?! Did you sign a deal? Oh Emma! Tell me you didn't!"

"Of course not. Killian got me out of his cage and I escaped without so much as a scratch from Pan."

"Emma! It's been months! If that's true, why did it take you so long?"

"Because Killian got kidnapped as he helped me escape so we had to go save him, and then we had to trap Pan's shadow to carry the ship back to this realm."

"Killian?" My dad asked cryptically.

"What? Did you think his mom just named him 'Hook' and then he went out on some self-fulfilling prophesy and lost his hand? His name is Killian. Killian Jones."

"You seem to be very close to the pirate."

"All of them, yeah. They're great people. They really looked out for me, you know?" I said, not really paying that much attention. "Hey, do you think I could go see Rumpelstiltskin?" Regina spit out her tea.

"I'm sorry, what?! Why would you ever want to do that after he tried…"

"Because I want to talk to him. I need to tell him something and I need him to understand something. Also I have a favor to ask of him."

"Emma! Do you not understand how dangerous that man is?!" my mother gasped.

"I've faced worse. Will one of you take me or do I have to bribe Graham again?" I said. After a long pause where the "adults" in the room looked warily at each other.

"I'll take you." My father said finally. "After you've settled back in."

"Thank you. I'll go bathe now." I insisted, making my way up the far too familiar stairs. Today I was going to do it. I was going to tell Rumpelstiltskin why I had to kill his son. I was going to tell him the truth, the _whole _truth. And then I was going to ask his forgiveness. He wouldn't give it, that much I knew, but before I could truly forgive myself I at least had to ask for his. Then I would ask if I could have Killian's hand. I knew how he had reacted in Neverland when I brought it up. It was a reminder. A negative one. He may wish to keep his hook, but that would be up to him, a choice. He could choose one way or the other what he wanted, and I could give that to him.

* * *

**David**

Rumpelstiltskin was sobbing. Laying on the floor of his cage, sobbing. Whatever my daughter had said to him had broken him in a way I hadn't known was possible.

"How could you?!" He screeched in the way only he could. I stepped forward but Emma held up her hand to me.

"I'm sorry. Believe me. I wish every day I hadn't done it, that I could have taken his place. But it was his choice. And he died a hero." Her voice lowered and once again I was out of the loop. The Dark One seemed to be drinking in her very words, like a man starved eating food at a banquet table.

"Where is the child?" I heard him ask, nervously. Nervously? Since when did Rumpelstiltskin get nervous?

"Dead." Was Emma's response. What in the hell were they talking about? There was quiet now, the pair of them staring into one another's eyes, as though they somehow…understood each other.

"So you understand my pain." Was Rumpelstiltskin's reply. Emma nodded slowly and once again they lapped into silence. After what felt like an eternity he bowed his head and spoke.

"I forgive you." Were his words. It was as though a weight had been lifted off my daughter's back and she burst into tears. I moved forward to comfort her but she pushed me away.

"One more thing." Emma said to the beast before us that was now looking utterly defeated and contained in a way that I couldn't have imagined. "The hand, in your vault. Is it his?" she asked. Rumpelstiltskin nodded slowly.

"For stealing my wife."

"No. Her heart was for her betrayal. His hand was for the beans." Rumpelstiltskin shrugged.

"It's been so long I hardly remember."

"Then you wouldn't mind if it left your possession?" Rumpelstiltskin shrugged.

"It is yours on one condition,"

"Emma do not make deals with that monster." I growled.

"What is it?"

"What did he look like?" he asked her. "The child?" Emma closed her eyes and held up her hand to the wall of the Dark One's cage. After a moment a slight shimmer appeared on the rock and the image of a small baby, smiling up appeared. Rumple sat down and stared at it. "His name?" He asked.

"Names are powerful things, Emma. Don't do it." I warned.

"Henry." She said simply, turning around. "Come on dad. Let's go." As we walked out I grabbed her arm.

"Emma, what just happened? I deserve to know what that deal was about!"

"Relax daddy. It's all over now."

"Why were you apologizing to him?!"

"Baelfire."

"What about the boy? How is it your fault he's run away from his father? Perhaps if the Dark One had been a better parent he would have stuck around!" I asked indignantly.

"He's dead, daddy." She said, walking forward with a grace and dignity I didn't know she possessed. "He deserved to know how his son died, at least." I paused.

"And the deal."

"We need to make a pit stop on the way home." She said evenly. "I have something to collect from the Dark One's vaults."

"A dangerous bit of magic?! Emma we're happy you wish to continue your studies, but dark magic isn't the way to go!"

"It's not dark magic." She lifted her hand and enveloped us in a white smoke. When it cleared, we found ourselves in the old castle of Rumpelstiltskin. She strode forward and picked up a glass jar, eyeing it happily.

"A hand. You came to this place of darkness for a hand?!"

"It's Killian's." She said simply. The name itself made a rush of anger run down my spine. _Killian._ She called the pirate by his first name, as he did her. There was a familiarity between them that I couldn't quite explain and it set me off in a protective direction. The man was over 200 years old and my little girl wasn't yet 18. If he so much as looked at her wrong the next time they were together, I would slit him navel to nose no matter that he had saved her life. He was taking advantage of her youth and naiveté. And it made me want to wring his neck. He was scum. Pirate scum. And here my wife was trying to throw him a party. I would have a little talk with him. I would make him understand that he needed to put as much distance between himself and my little girl as possible. Nothing else was an option. Of course if he had already convinced Emma to develop some sort of school girl crush, she would be just stubborn enough to go after him. I would have to talk to Regina, convince her to put an enchantment on Emma, one that would keep her here for a while. Just long enough for her to grow out of the crush, and understand that what she should be looking for in her life should be true love, her soulmate. It shouldn't be a one handed pirate with a drinking problem. _That_ was something I would see to. Immediately. Tonight.

* * *

**Author's Note: Reviews = love...like how much I love you guys! xoxox**


	24. Love and Doubt

**Killian**

Midnight that first night back on shore found me climbing a trellis outside of a castle. Me. Climbing a trellis. To meet an enchanted Princess. To woo her. Who'd have thought? After making it over the hedge, I dropped, soundlessly to the ground. An array of intoxicating scents met me and I closed my eyes for a moment, taking it in.

"Took you long enough." Her soft voice rang out quietly in the darkness. I opened my eyes and only had moments to prepare myself as a pirate looking princess threw herself into my arms. I caught her, my lips searching out hers in the darkness, breathing her in and allowing myself for the first time since I was separated from her this noon to relax.

"I was being followed." I said. I had noticed the guard trailing me near dusk and I had been forced to take a round about trip into the room of a woman of ill repute and then had climbed out her window as she took the payment of a large sack of coins and a few hours reprieve from her work.

"Paranoid." She teased, pinching my arm. "Who on Earth would want to follow you? Especially with that pirate-y stench, ugh." I spun her around and pinned her to the hedge.

"I seem to recall you burying your face in my neck despite that 'stench' as you so lovingly put it. And besides, I'm a man. I'm supposed to smell like sweat and hard work. You're the one who is supposed to smell like a delicate flower, floating on a sea breeze or some rubbish like that, and as I recall, you too bore a rather _pirate-y_scent, love." She giggled and wrapped her arms around me once more, kissing me hard.

"Well you're here now. I may as well make use of you, smell or not." I knew she was teasing. (And only partly because I had spent a few hard earned coins to take a bath at a local bath house this afternoon, even going so far as to add a few scented oils to the water.) My hand found her hair, clutching at it tightly, my hook holding her tightly against me.

"Is it possible to miss someone so much it hurts?" I asked. She sighed into me.

"I wouldn't have thought so until you walked away this afternoon."

"I found myself wondering what you were up to every five minutes or so, lass. You occupied my mind completely."

"Even when you were bathing?" She asked coyly, her voice sounding far too innocent. Inhaling slightly, her eyes closed halfway as she took in my scent. I growled lowly, nipping at the skin on her neck to emphasize my words.

"Especially then, Swan." She smile up at me.

"Me too."

"Tell me about your afternoon." I begged. "What exactly did the Crown Princess of the Realm find to occupy her time after being returned from captivity?"

"My parents took your advice." She said, interrupting her story only to plant another kiss on my lips. "We spent the whole day interviewing the Lost Boys, finding when they were from and where, and doing our best to connect those who still have family living with their relatives. Regina helped a lot, taxing them back and forth. A few of the original Lost Boys, well, their family has long since passed. The only ones left wouldn't even know who they are. Those who wanted to start over were gifted with some money and papers of identification. Those who wanted a job, were given their choice from the open castle positions. They're nearly all taken care off. By the end of the week, my tasks here will be done."

"Thank God." I breathed kissing her soundly or a few minutes before continuing to speak. "Then we shall be able to set sail." She nodded excitedly. "I miss it, the feel of the ship rocking beneath my feet, the wind and ocean spray in my face." She sighed.

"A true Pirate Princess before me." I said with a smile, leaning my head back to look happily down upon my love. "The Sea calls to you as it does me." I kissed her neck and sucked her earlobe between my teeth. "As she does, me." I murmured in her ear, feeling her shiver beneath me.

"There's one more thing I did today." She said quietly, sounding almost...guilty? I stiffened.

"And what is that, Princess?"

"I went to see Rumpelstiltskin."

"Emma!" I pulled back, looking at her angrily. "Do you have any idea of how dangerous that is? He could have-"

"I didn't go alone, if that helps." She said with an eyeroll." I sighed. It did. Only slightly, but still.

"Forgive me, lass. I'm overreacting. I know you can care for yourself, I just worry." She smiled.

"I had to tell him. I had to tell him how his son died, that he had for a few brief moments, had a grandson. That it had been my fault that Baelfire was dead, I had to tell him everything."

"May I ask why?" I said. "Why you felt the need to tell him?"

"How could I ask for forgiveness if he didn't even know what I was sorry for?" She said. "He knew I had killed his son but he didn't know why, or that it was my fault that the creature was after us to begin with, or that it was only to save his own son that Bae died. He had to know. I had to tell him everything, and still beg his forgiveness." I pulled her tightly to my chest, feeling a few stray tears fall onto my shirt.

"I wish I could have been with you, Swan, been there for you." She nestled in to the crook of my neck.

"He forgave me." She said quietly. "He was horribly angry, sobbing and cursing me, but then...he forgave me." The emotions that clouded her face sent a shock straight through me and I wrapped her into my arms. Relief. That was the predominate emotion. It was as though a weight had been lifted off of her, that she was free of guilt.

"As he should have, love. You are not at fault. You were saving your son, Swan. You were saving Henry. No one in the world could fault you for that." She nodded still holding me tightly.

"I feel that I am ready, Killian. I am ready to move on. This is not the life I was meant for, and its time I set sail on a new adventure."

"One week, lass." I said with a wink. "One week and the ocean shall be our playground."

* * *

**Charming**

"We lost him, sire."

"How did you _lose_ a pirate?!"

"He went into..." The guard trailed off, looking rather embarrassed. "He went into a brothel, my lord, and we thought he intended some...private entertainment. We stepped into a pub across the street for a bite to eat. We figured we could watch the doors from there and see him leaving without looking terribly suspicious. But then it had been such a long time. It seemed a bit odd, how long it had been, so Jeremy went inside to investigate and the room he had entered was empty, save the girl who owned it and a large sack of coins. After a few more passed her way, she admitted that a pirate had come in, but rather than making the usual sort of purchase, he paid her to stay alone in her room all night, pretending she was with him, and then he had snuck out her window. We couldn't find anyone who claimed to see him after that, sire." I swore. I had been merely suspicious of the pirate before this, but what kind of man paid a prostitute to give him an alibi? What was he up to? What sort of crime would he commit without his crew that he would need an alibi for? What could he possibly be...oh no. Oh HELL no. Without another word I raced off through the castle, nearly knocking over our cook in the process. I raced through the hallways and corridors, I finally found myself outside Emma's room. Taking a deep breath to steel myself to what I could potentially walk in on, and drawing my sword in case I was right, I opened the door and peeked in. I breathed a sigh of relief. Emma was there. Sound asleep in her bed and alone, the early first rays of dawn shining across her bare arm. Home. Safe. And _he_ wasn't here. Now anyway. I gritted my teeth.

She slept til noon. Despite her assurances that it had been hard to sleep in Neverland and that she was catching up, my suspicion was aroused. Following him wasn't enough. Tonight I would have my men keep an eye on _her_ as well.

* * *

**Emma**

Nearly 24 agonizing hours after we had kissed goodbye sometime around 3 in the morning, the castle began to fall asleep once more. My parents had gone off to bed, and the only ones still awake, were my guards. Well...a simple sleeping charm should do the trick there. After casting it, I swung open my window and leapt to the ground. (Ah the joys of living on the first floor.) The ground flew beneath my feet as I raced across the grounds toward the garden. Our garden. As soon as I made my way past the first row of hedges, I saw him. My pirate. I ran quietly to his side. At the last minute he heard me behind him and spun on his heel, arms open to catch me. Our lips met and we kissed happily.

"How long it has been since my lips touched thee?" He murmured in my ear as we parted, his arms still holding me safe and sound within their embrace.

"Only one day." I replied, laughing as his urgency.

"One day?" He groaned. "Never. It has been a thousand years or more."

"How well you have aged, good sir."

"Indeed, while I have retained my youthful exterior, know that I've spent an eternity longing for you, Princess." He nipped at my earlobe, sending a shiver across my skin.

"Every moment seemed a lifetime," I agreed. "The week's end cannot come soon enough."

"Don't wish that my Swan." He insisted, gripping my shoulder's tightly. "We are to leave here for a very long time and though it is what you want, you may not see your family for a long time hence. Enjoy your time here, in your home, and embrace your time with your family." I nodded.

"You're right, of course."

"Darling, haven't you realized by now? I'm always right."

"Mmmm, vastly humble, too."

"Ah, how well you know me, love." I kissed his jawline and sighed into him.

"They made me wear a dress today."

"How dare they." He replied facetiously.

"You don't understand! I've nothing against a good gown, I'll even sacrifice my comfort if its for a good cause, but the dress was highly uncomfortable and I could barely walk in it let alone run, and the corset was absolutely useless and did nothing for my figure nor would it ever protect me from knives, bullets, or magic. In fact, my mother flat out told me that the corset would, _'hide my figure and allow me some modesty'_. Can you believe that?"

"Does 'allow you some modesty' mean what I think it means?"

"That I was flattened, poked, and prodded by whalebones from my hips to my collarbone and covered up to my neck all the way from my toes? Why yes, yes it does." I pouted and he grinned at me.

"Well now I'm conflicted, Swan. On one hand, to deny the world the vision that is you decorated in an ensemble that is decidedly..._un_modest is a sin in itself. On the other...your mother did just provide me with the knowledge that while I was denied the opportunity to gaze upon you all the day long, so was every other hot blooded man in your castle. And that pleases me greatly."

"Of course it does." I said, rolling my eyes. "Speaking of decidedly immodest..." I trailed off glancing down at the shift nightgown I'd chosen for this evening. It was slim and sleek and very nearly see-through. I'd never been a particularly big fan of nightgowns – the fabric always wrapped itself around my legs while I was sleeping in the most obnoxious way! - but this _was_a special occasion, and I very much doubted that sleeping had aught to do with it. I took his hand in mine. "Come on." I whispered. "I want to show you the labyrinth."

* * *

**Killian Jones**

It was the early hours of the morning as I strode away from the castle grounds. I'd be lying to myself if I said there wasn't a certain swagger in my step, a certain pride after that night. There was also a smile I couldn't wipe away. She had said she loved me again. The first time we had exchanged sentiments, it had been after the throes of love. We had been filled with endorphins and hormones and while we had spoken of our feelings frequently, tonight had been different somehow. Tonight she had said it, and _showed_it with every fiber of her being. I loved her, of that I was infinitely certain, but now I was quite sure that she felt much the same.

My thoughts were broken into when a large hand gripped my shoulder. I turned around to face my accoster and in a matter of moments, my very blood froze.

"Your Majesty." I muttered, staring into the eyes of King David.

"Pirate." He snarled, leaving no misconceptions for me to imagine that perhaps he had no idea what I had just been doing. "I believe it's time you and I had a talk, man to man."

* * *

**David**

I was seething. No, that didn't quite encapsulate what I was feeling. An anger so terrifying it told me to kill the despicable fool before me was overwhelming, and it was only my honor that kept me from drawing my sword and finishing him. I had walked past Emma's room for an update from the guards only to find them in a sleep I was incapable of waking them from. She had charmed them to sleep. Her magic was growing more powerful to do something without making such a magical racket as to wake Regina. I had rushed into her room to find her window open, the night breeze playing with her curtains, her bed fully unslept in. Thankfully a dew had coated the grass as night had arrived and her footprints were visible in the thick grass. I followed them cursing as they grew fainter and fainter until they disappeared altogether. Where had she been heading?! Only a few locations were in the direct path she had taken, and if I was correct, she had gone into one of the gardens. I crept silently along the underbrush, carefully checking every nook and cranny of her favorites. When I reached the outermost garden I sighed. The Labyrinth. Had they met in the maze of hedges Emma was so fond of? Was I to have to find my way through the poorly lit maze in the dead of night to find what I feared was a romantic assignation between my daughter and that_pirate_? Taking a deep breath, I had journeyed in, making my way through each twist and turn, getting lost several times before I found my bearings. Dawn was approaching when I finally heard noises. Voices. Speaking. His voice, in particular, hard to mistake. After waiting a moment, I gasped. There it was. Her voice. They were here. Together. If this were an innocent meeting between friends, there would be no reason to sneak out in the middle of the night. And if his intentions were in any way honorable, he wouldn't be planning on sailing away at week's end. He was seducing my daughter – a _child –_and then planned to leave her, heartbroken and waiting for a dishonorable man. They left, kissing and murmuring inaudible words to one another before she pulled her nightgown back around her and hurried off towards the castle. I would deal with her later. First thing was first. I followed the pirate out of the garden and silently crept behind him as he passed the castle gate. He stepped into the woods, walking quickly down the path into town. Just then, I reached forward and gripped his shoulder. The look in his eyes as he turned around told me what I needed to know.

"Your Majesty," He had said, meekly, guiltily.

"Pirate." My contempt for him was obvious in my voice as I spoke. "I believe it's time you and I had a talk, man to man." He glanced around the empty woods nervously.

"Sir, I-"

"Don't speak. I've seen enough." I growled. "Let me tell you what's going to happen. You're going to leave. And you're not ever going to come back."

"Sir, it's not what you think. It's-"

"You're telling me that you, a several _hundred_ year old man with more than his fair share of experience of the world didn't seduce the _child_ that was _under his protection_?"

"She's not a child." He spoke with great force then, as though what I had said somehow was offensive to him.

"She is a child! She's my child! You're two centuries older than her, and a pirate to boot. She deserves far more than you could ever give her."

"I love her. Does she not deserve someone who loves her?"

"She deserves someone who is young and whole. She deserves to find true love, not some flimsy replacement forged in the heat and panic of adventure. She's caught up in that feeling, in the adventure of the whole thing. It isn't you." I could see a fleeting emotion cross his face and I could tell that I had hit a nerve.

"She deserves someone who can stay with her, here, someone who can give her what she needs without tearing her away from her family. She deserves to grow older, make mistakes, and figure out who she is before committing herself to someone so much her senior he couldn't change if he wanted to. She would mold herself, give up everything for you, I know her. If you really loved her, you wouldn't let her do that. If you really loved her you would let her go, you would let her take the time to grow up."

"I can't live without her." He murmured, more to himself that to me.

"If you had a daughter, would you want this for her?" His entire demeanor shifted, almost sinking. "Leave." I told him. "Before the ball. Get on your ship and sail away. And don't come back. It may break her heart but it will be temporary, and it will heal as young hearts are wont to do. Then she can move on with her life."

"She can be happy." He mumbled. I nodded.

"She will be." He nodded before slowly holding out his hand. I reluctantly shook it.

"Swear it to me. Swear to me that you will be sure she lives well and loves again. Swear to me that you will make sure she is happy. She deserves that. That and so much more. Swear to me, shepherd."

"I swear it pirate."

* * *

**Author's Note: Spoilers...but I SWEAR this is fic is HEA! I SWEAR IT! Everything's going to work out but a few things need to happen before Emma and Hook are together forever:) xoxo - E**

**P.S. REVIEW! I'M BEGGING YOU! For the number of views on this story, the reviews are pretty minimal:( That makes me very sad! So PLEASE, whether its positive or negative I LIVE for reviews!**


	25. Marmota

**Author's Note: So sorry this took FOREVER! I had so many ideas that needed heavy editing. Hope you enjoy this chapter! **

**P.S. To the Guest Reviewer who wrote the following:**

This film is the most OOC depiction of David ever written. Badly done.

**Generally I respond to reviews directly on PM but you didn't leave a name so here it is! Um...Hi! First off I'm so glad you reviewed and let me know how you are feeling here! reviews really help me improve my writing and let me know what everyone is thinking so I can improve in either future stories or when I revamp this one. (Anyone looking at the first few chapters will know that this DEFINITELY needs a revamp;) So thank you for letting me know what you are thinking! One tiny thing that made me laugh and then an explanation of my logic so maybe you can get on board or at the very least understand where I'm coming from: A) ...not a film sweetie;) B) This fic is CLEARLY an alternate universe story so the background and what the characters have gone through in their past is VERY different. I believe that our past and our experiences make us what we are so the same person who went through different things in their life would in fact act and react to situations differently. Also, as Emma was separated from her family in the show, we don't really know what David and Snow would have been like as parents to a teenage Emma and while _we_ know she is 25, they see her as a 17 year old. My parents at 17? Extremely protective and would have been pretty pissed to find out I was dating someone even 10 years older than me, let alone 200 years older than me. In my mind, his daughter has just been taken from him, after her already being separated for him for some time, he's going to be protective and he's going to want her to stick around. If you recall from the show, he WAS very upset with Hook in the beginning of his courtship with Emma, going so far as to say that he's nothing but a pirate and he would never deserve Emma and that Emma would never be with him. This was my interpretation of that moment and as you'll see in this chapter, it was important to the story that Killian left without Emma. I think given David's backstory here, its not THAT OOC...unless those actions weren't what you were referring to in which case PLEASE PM or review to let me know so I can choose to adjust or not when I put this guy through a rewrite! Also, to the person who PMed me about this review specifically - boo boo bear. I LOVE reviews. Even/especially negatives or critiques because I am really striving to improve my writing! I super appreciate your standing to my defense but I promise, I was just as excited to get this review as all the others. (And only partially because they used one of my favorite words: Depiction...I don't know what it is about that word but it really does something for me! That word alone made me inordinately happy;) **

**SO! After THAT long winded response...here's the part you are REALLY here for!**

* * *

**Demetri**

"Captain, I don't understand."

"Round up the crew and make ready to set sail. Have I not spoken those words a thousand times or more? I don't understand what you are not understanding, mate."

"The ball..."

"We will not be attending the ball. We will be setting sail to find the lost treasure of Captain Teague."

"You know I care not for balls, this is not why I protest, I simply don't understand, sir. There is a ball to be held in our honor, a way for the men to gain payment for our trip to Neverland, if you will. But more than that, it is their opportunity to say goodbye to the Princess." I paused and looked directly into his eyes. "Unless, that is, there is some reason to believe that we shall see the Princess somewhere along our journey to find the lost treasure of Captain Teague." His face turned to stone as I suggested a plan to potentially bring the Princess with us. As if it hadn't crossed his mind. I had seen the way they acted around one another. I had seen the pain he'd been in when he'd had to walk away from her in the ballroom. And I'd watched as each night he snuck off to meet her somewhere, coming back with an unshakable grin on his face and a lightness in him I hadn't seen in far too long. I had expected it. Hell, I had begun to hope for it. She was good for him, and somehow, he was for her as well. But last night...last night he had come back to the ship and shattered the mirror he'd kept in his quarters since Milah with a yell that shook me to my core. And now he wanted to flee.

"It's as you said. She's a Princess. She doesn't care about a bunch of lowly pirates. She doesn't wish to go to this ball so we shall save her the trouble and get out of her way."

"Sir, I said that ages ago. I think she's proven time and time again that she isn't like that."

"She deserves more than a bunch of lowly pirates than!" He yelled suddenly, his voice despondent and tinged with an edge of insanity. "Does it matter? Either way we should not be here and so we won't be."

"Captain, I don't think-"

"And I don't care what you think!" He snarled. "Me and my ship depart before dusk. Whether or not you choose to come aboard or stay for the ball is up to you, but don't expect my ship to sail in these waters anytime soon."

"You're not coming back?" He snorted.

"What for? To visit?" His voice was filled with sarcasm and fury. "I am leaving Demetri. Tell the others, the Jolly leaves tonight and if they wish to be on it, they will run back. If not, they are free to leave my crew."

"Captain-"

"That is final, Demetri." He stormed away and I could feel a sense of sadness settling in my chest. He was a mess. Unhinged, even. The crazed look in his eyes was so reminiscent of when he lost Milah I knew what had happened. Whatever the method of separating them, he and Emma were no longer together. And it would only get worse, the more he was subjected to her absence. The next few weeks Captain Jones would be long gone. We would be subjected to the full and terrifying presence of the ruthless Captain Hook.

* * *

**Emma**

He hadn't come. He must have been detained, the guard shift or something, because I waited in our garden all night. The sun was well since up by the time I snuck back into my room, only moments before the first maids came in to open my shades and prepare my room for the day. As I held my eyes closed, pretending to be soundly asleep, a single tear escaped my lashes and slipped won my face.

* * *

That noon, I convinced Regina and mom that I wished to go shopping for some jewelry in town, knowing full well the shop Regina liked best was in full view of the docks. It was a bad idea. When we arrived, I nearly vomited on the poor sales girl. It was gone. The Jolly was gone.

"Emma?" My mom gently nudged my shoulder. "Are you alright? You look almost green!"

"It's a bit stuffy, here. I think the sea air will help. I shall go for a walk by the pier."

"By yourself?!" Her protective radar went up and she began to panic.

"I shall take a guardsman. Okay? I'm just a bit nauseous. Its so hot in here."

"I can come with you if you like." She offered.

"No, but could you find me a necklace to wear with the new green gown?" She nodded, happy to be given such a task, and I made my way out the door, allowing one of the guards to follow me to the seashore. Looking everywhere, I confirmed what I had seen. The Jolly was gone, nowhere to be seen.

"You there!" I called out to a ship master. "The Jolly Roger was ported here yesterday. Where has she gone to?"

"If you're looking for the Jolly you're wasting your time, lass." He called back. "If Captain Hook don't want to be found he wont be. Saw 'im leave with the tide last night. One of his crew was sayin' how some man had given the Captain magic beans or some shite. I didn't believe the bloke 'til I watched the ship disappear in a flash. Lest you know where he's headed, I doubt you'd catch up."

The next thing I knew, my legs were being held up by a fisherman, the guard holding my head off the cobblestones, a fisher woman holding something that smelled foul beneath my nose.

"Are ye' all right, my lady?" She asked kindly. "Fell right to the ground, you did." She said. Fainted. I had fainted. I had never fainted in my life. He was gone. He had left me. They always left me.

"I'm afraid I'm not feeling at all well. I would like to go home."

"Of course your majesty." My guard whistled and our horse and carriage appeared. Someone must have been sent running for it after I'd fallen down. [_Fainted, Emma,_I reminded myself, _you fainted, you didn't fall._] The guard helped me inside wherein sat Regina, holding my mother whose hands were wringing as she cried. As soon as I was situated the guard nodded at her and she flung her arms around me.

"Oh Emma! Are you alright? What's wrong?"

"I don't know, mom I might just be a tad straight-laced is all. I haven't worn this type of corset in a while is all." She nodded, understanding the sensation of one's corset having been tied too tightly.

"Emma, if you turn around, I can loosen it a touch for our trip home." Regina offered. I nodded and turned my back to her, eager to feel the lessening of the cage wrapped around me, eager to be able to draw breath, and in all honesty, I wasn't sure that I would be able to then either but it was worth a shot. I felt the strings tug a bit tighter just before mom managed to release some of the tension. She was silent for a moment before situating my dress so it once again covered my back. "Better, dear?" I inhaled. Yes. I could draw breath. And yet no, no it wasn't better. Because Killian, the love of my life, had left without me. There had to be some explanation...there just had to be! Perhaps something had happened and they'd had to move the Jolly for some safety reason or other. My mind came up with nearly a million possible reasons the ship wasn't there but I knew, deep down I knew. If Killian was planning on coming back, he would have sent word that the ship was moving. He would have found a way to let me know. I replayed the entirety of last night in my head going over ever word, every action, looking for a moment when he might have been even a slight bit unattached, distancing himself, but every word and deed had been one of love. Every action had been that of a man fully intending to steal me away at the end of the week. Every action had been...no. I had to stop. This was too painful. I couldn't cry in front of my mother or Regina. I couldn't show emotion. I couldn't...I had to think about something else. Anything else.

After the carriage arrived at home, mom ran off to fetch me something to eat while Regina took my hand and let me hastily to my chambers.

"I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing," She muttered quietly, "by talking to you rather than going to your parents." I spun around.

"What do you know?" I hissed, not in anger, but rather in pure anxious necessity.

"Not whatever it is you think I know, clearly." She said, looking quite taken aback. "I only wanted to say, you've got...marks on your skin. Your back and your neck. Your mother didn't notice but when I was fixing your corset it was hard to mistake them. I understand your emotions. You know that my mother caught me with a boy when I was barely older than you are now. You don't have to explain that. But Emma, you've never fainted before in your life. You've a strong stomach. And now, all of a sudden, you're not feeling well, needing to take some air, loosen your corsets, and then you faint? Emma. Tell me honestly. I will do all I can to help you. Are you pregnant?"

* * *

**Killian**

Demetri threw the magic bean out into the sea and steered the ship right towards it. I knew this was what was supposed to happen. I knew this was what I had chosen. But the closer we got towards that swirling mass of water the further I got from Emma. My heart was pounding and I could feel a cold sweat dripping down my bath. _I am doing this for Emma, I am doing this for her. This is what's best for her. _

"Alright boys!" Demetri called out as I felt tears welling in my eyes. "Think happy thoughts! We're off to the Land of Bliss...Hortensia!" The Land of Bliss. A joke. How on earth could I ever be happy without her? How on earth could I ever feel anything beyond this blinding pain, again? I was doing this for her. It was best for her, in the long run. She deserved a chance to find her true love, just as I had Milah. But it was more than that. She deserved a chance to find her soul mate, as I had found in her. And just as she had given me those few blissful weeks wherein my soul had been truly at peace, truly happy, she deserved that too. I absentmindedly scratched my arm. It had been itching for a few weeks now. I didn't know what that was about, but my tattoo had been on fire. I looked down with a frown and gasped. The dagger was gone, replaced with a bright, white sword. And floating atop the waves, was the dainty silhouette of a black swan. Emma. This tattoo...I had gotten it from a witch. It was an enchanted tattoo, a symbol of my literal soul. My soul had been so fixated on revenge for so long, the tattoo had become permanent. The dark one dagger, protecting Milah's heart. But now...now the blade was pure, and my swan had appeared, a literal tattoo on my soul.

There a sudden thump and we all fell to the floor. It felt as though we'd hit a reef.

"What in the hell was that?" Owen's voice rang out angrily. "This isn't Hortensia!" I glanced around the ship. Holy hell. No it most certainly was _not_. You know where else we weren't? The ocean. We were smack dab in the middle of a dessert. How in the hell had that happened?

* * *

The search party walked around, looking for the nearest speck of civilization. Demetri had yelled at everyone for muddling their thoughts, but I knew that this was somehow my fault. I hadn't for a second been thinking of Hortensia. I'd been thinking of Emma. I'd been thinking of her, of how this was all to make her happy, of how I'd do anything, even tear my own heart out to make her happy. And somehow that had brought us here. Somehow, this place, was key to Emma's happiness. And I would be damned if I sat around and wallowed in my own heartbreak rather than do everything in my power to bring that happiness to Emma.

"Captain," Demetri growled, still clearly upset with me. "Didn't the King give you dozens of magic beans? Why don't we just go again?" I shook my head.

"We're here for a reason Demetri."  
"Because some crew member was thinking about the beach? It was probably Connor! Let's just punish him and get going!"

"No, Demetri. We're here for a reason and we will stay until I find out why."

"Captain," he began.

"My word is final Demetri. If you wanted to make the rules, you should have stayed with the princess and convinced her to buy you your own boat."

"Ah." Was his simple reply.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It was you. You were thinking about the Princess. That's why you think this place is significant."

"Another word and you lose the tongue." I threatened, knowing that my words sounded hallow and flat. I didn't mean it. And he knew that.

"We love her too." He said quietly. "If you simply said there was something here for Emma, we would follow you in an instant." I paused, thinking about that. She was family here. And on this crew there wasn't shit we wouldn't do for family.

"There's something here for Emma. I just don't know what."

"Is that why we left? Is that why the King sent us off?" He asked excitedly. I shook my head.

"No. He hasn't a clue nor does he care where we went, so long as we did, in fact, leave."

"So what makes you think-"

"When we were leaving I noticed an addition to my tattoo."

"That ink you got from that witch? Your soul mark or whatever?" I nodded.

"There's a swan there."

"So?"

"Emma got a soul marking once too. Her soul manifests into a Swan." He nodded.

"I was thinking about her, about how this was all to make her happy, that I would do anything to make her happy, and in that moment, we changed course and ended up here. There's something here that will make her happy. And I wont rest until I find it."

"Excuse me." A small voice behind us pipped up. "Did my mother send you?" I spun around to see a little boy with a mop of brown hair looking up at us excitedly. "I told her I was bored and asked for some friends. Did she send you?"

"I'm afraid not boy." Demetri replied gruffly. "But perhaps you can help us. Could you tell us where we are? We've gotten ourselves a bit lost." His face sank ever so slightly, but a perpetual grin still beamed out at us. It was oddly familiar.

"Of course. You're in my mother's realm, Marmota." Hang on, I knew of that realm. Emma had mentioned it once. Perhaps she had left something behind here! Or there was a message from an old friend I could assist in the delivery of. Something for Emma! Surely I was right. Surely her happiness lay here. "Even if my mother didn't send you, would you like to join me for lunch? The fairies always make sure I have plenty of food, I'm certain they would love to have guests too."

"You're cared for by fairies?" I asked, intrigued. "Where is your mother?"

"She's at home in Cilcia. I used to live there too, but she thought someone might find me and use me for my magic." He suddenly looked upset. "You aren't here to steal my magic, are you?"

"No lad." I assured him quickly. "If it were magic we were after I have a friend who is quite proficient in that subject, I shouldn't need you."  
"Good. My mother says everyone is after my magic, and that's why I can't have friends. Which is weird, really, since she's spent my whole life trying to steal my magic herself." I frowned. There was something very, very wrong here. It sounded to me as though this child's 'mother' wasn't his mother at all but a witch intent on stealing a child for whatever use they might serve her.

"Who is your mother, lad?" I asked.

"Well there's my real mother and my adoptive mother. My real mother was banished from this realm when I was born, so my new mother took me in and makes sure I am cared for until she can figure out how to extract the magic from my heart. Supposedly the Heart of the Truest Believer can keep her young forever."My brow furrowed. There was something oddly...not familiar...perhaps...oh I didn't know. I had never heard a story like that before, and yet it seemed to fit well with something else, though I couldn't quite put my finger on it. The boy lowered his voice when he began to speak again. "Are you here to take me away? It was my birthday yesterday, and I asked my mother for some friends, but I wished on my candle for someone to take me away, to bring me back to my real mom."

"I'm afraid not, lad." Demetri said. "But we are quite famished, and if you are offering a lunch, we are more than happy to keep you company for a while. I'm Demetri. This is Evan, Owen, Jenkins, Jimmy, and our Captain, Captain Hook."

"Killian Jones, lad, at your service." I said bowing dramatically, winking, making the small boy giggle.

"It's nice to meet you." He said. "My name is Henry."

* * *

**Author's Note: See? I told you it was important that Killian left! Mwahahaha! Please Review! (Even/Especially critiques!)**


	26. Mirror Images

**Author's Note: It's been forever. Please don't hate me. I forgot to warn everyone that I would be doing National Novel Writing Month this November and not to expect any updates from me but as soon as it was over I hurried to get this finished. I've already started the next chapter so despite finals approaching I WILL get something up soon! Anyway, thanks to everyone who has been sticking with me through the erratic updating - I love you all so much! PLEASE review! I would LOVE to hear what everyone thinks! Enjoy my lovely readers - xoxo E**

* * *

**Killian Jones**

"Henry." I repeated blankly. It all rushed forward in my mind. Emma's story of her lost son, the boy she thought long dead. He was standing right here in front of me. Emma's son. This had all had a complete reason. I had been banished, my heart, my soul had been torn into pieces and it was all worth it. Because I had just found my swan's son. "Lad, how old are you?" I had to be sure. This was such an impossibility, I needed to check. I needed to be sure, but it was all too perfect to be a mistake. Everything lined up so utterly perfectly, I just knew. I just knew. That boy was Emma's child.

"It's hard to tell. Marmota replays the same day over and over, and my adoptive mom wouldn't tell me when my birthday is."

"Right, well-"

"I have a picture of her though! She's the most beautiful woman in the world. Want to see?"

"I would like nothing more, lad." He dug into his shirt collar and pulled out a trinket. "She gave this to me before I was taken. The gold piece lay in my hand and I took a deep breath before pressing the latch on the side of the locket. My heart stopped. She truly was the most beautiful woman in the world.

"Emma." I breathed, my eyes refusing to tear themselves away from her image, smiling happily. I jumped, letting out a yelp as the image began to shift, the smile widening and her eyes flicking open and shut.

"Oh, I probably should have said. It's enchanted."

"Enchanted?"

"She talks to me sometimes. Teaches me things. Tells me she always loves me."

"How?"

"The fairies said that she thought we might be separated one day, so she enchanted it to reflect her heart. That way it can be a part of me even if she couldn't be. Her name is Emma. She tells me that she loves me and that one day she will come for me and that she will always be fighting for me until the day we are separated by death, nothing less will stop her she says. She used to be so sad, and she wouldn't say why, but the fairy Merinda said that it was probably because my real mom, wherever she is, is sad, and so this part of her heart is also sad. She's the one who always tells me what the other fairies try to keep from me, too."

"Used to be sad?" I asked, thinking about her time in Neverland. Of course she'd have been sad then, away from her family. The lad plucked the locket out of my hand and strung it back around his neck, looking down at her happily.

"Yes. For as long as I can remember, her eyes always looked like she was a little bit sad. She would still tell me how special I am, and how much she loves me, and she would still tell me things about her and what our life was supposed to be like, teaching me things, you know. But then a month ago, she started to look happy again. Really, really happy. She told me that she was happy in a way she hadn't been since she lost me. She still missed me every second of every day, but that someone was making her remember that she should be happy for me."

"What do you mean?"

"I wanted her to be happy. We were apart for so long and I had to watch her be sad. I wanted her to be happy. And then she was." He glanced down and frowned. "What did you do?!" He yelled angrily, taking a few steps back, looking up at me in horror.

"What? Nothing, lad what's wrong?" I asked, suddenly hyper nervous.

"She's not happy!" He yelled at me, looking at the photo of Emma. "She's crying! Did you make her cry?"

"Hush Henry!" A voice hissed out of the air, quieting the lad instantly. I looked around frantically for its source, finding no one. "Do you want your mother to hear you panic and cut her trip to the Cilic Isles short?" He shook his head but glared at me.

"Merinda, he held Emma's locket and now she's sad again."

"He couldn't have done anything. That's connected to her, not the other way around. It can feel what she feels, but she can't sense anything that happens on your end. That's why she hasn't come to help you sooner."

"She hasn't come for you because she believes you dead, lad." The boy looked out and reached out with his hand, as though grabbing the hand of another, his hand falling shut around thin air.

"What do you mean?"

"I know your mother, lad. Emma. We are… recent acquaintances. She spoke of you. Nothing in the world would or could keep her from your side and your _adoptive mother_," My lips tripped over the words, angering me beyond what I could have imagined before. "Your adoptive mother knew that. She knew how powerful Emma was, she knew that if she thought you were alive and waiting for her she would be here in an instant. Your adoptive mother tricked Emma, made her believe you dead." It was time to leap back in fear again as a young girl materialized out of thin air, proving to be the owner of the hand Henry now clutched in his own. I would guess she was around 15, maybe more. Her hair, a soft purple color, almost glowed, as did her wings (Yup. Wings.) which fluttered excitedly.

"You know Emma?!"

"Yes. I've just come from her side, in fact."

"Can you get back? Can you bring Henry to her?" I looked down at the hopeful face of the lad, my mind consumed with the promise I'd made to the King, the way my tattoo, my very soul, now held her mark on me. If I returned, the king may very well kill me. He might be saved the trouble by my dying when I had to leave Emma for a second time, but it all would be worth it to know I had reunited her with her son.

"Yes. I will take you to her, lad."

* * *

**Emma **

"I'm not pregnant, Regina!"

"Can you really be certain?"

"I'm completely certain!"

"The symptoms are subtle at times; it isn't like in the fairytales when mothers know instantly. A new mother often doesn't know until someone points it out to her."

"Regina. I'm not pregnant. I promise you. I'm a hell of a lot more careful than that these days, and if you don't believe me, do some spell. I'm sure you know one to check for signs of life or something." She sighed, still unbelieving, and raised her hands. I knew what being pregnant felt like. I also knew that a seer once told me I'd only have one son. I'd had that son. I wasn't pregnant. A few minutes later came her begrudging answer.

"Fine. You're not pregnant."

"No need to sound so disappointed, Regina!" I exclaimed.

"Don't think I wanted that, but at least if it was pregnancy I'd know what was wrong with you."

"I was straight-laced, Regina. It happens to women of the court all the time, why ever shouldn't it happen to me, especially if I'm not used to wearing a corset every day?"

"It's not just that, Emma, you've been…"

"What?"

"Glowy. You've been glowy." I looked away. I couldn't look at her just then.

"Yeah, well…" _The truth Em, or some variation. You can't keep lying like this. It will catch up to you. _"As you noticed, I was getting laid on the regular."

"There's a way to say that in a less crude way, dear."

"Then you shouldn't have sent fucking pirates to come rescue me." I spat out bitterly.

"That rings heavily of anger, Emma. Would you rather you hadn't been saved." Thoughts that held a fragment of the answer to that question drowned my mind. If they hadn't, I wouldn't have met any of them [especially him] and I wouldn't hurt so horribly because I hadn't known any different. Of course before the pain of losing him, was the pain of Henry. It was still there now, but it was a burden I was used to carrying, a pain I would always carry. Hook had had no effect on that pain, he had just masked it ever so slightly. Then again, the pain I felt now, it only occurred because I had felt such immense joy, such incredible love, did I really want to live without the loss so much I was willing to sacrifice the love? I sighed.

"I don't know, Regina. Maybe."

"Emma, what happened to you that-"

"I've called Doc. He'll be here in a moment to take a look at you!" My mother said, flying into the room like a gust of hurricane force wind.

"Regina just scanned me mom, I'm fine. Really. I was just straight laced, as I said." Mom's eyes flicked instantly to Regina for conformation. She still looked at me, deciding. My heart pounded wildly to see if she would share her suspicions with my mother.

"Right. I was worried, as you were Snow. I gave her a scan; she seems fine now. Perhaps we can just let her dress as she'd like for a bit." Snow nodded instantly.

"Of course! Whatever would be best!"

"Well then. I'll just change my clothes."

"Of course sweetheart, but I'd really love if you let Doc take another once over when you've finished?"

"Sure mom." They left my room and for the first time since the incident I found myself alone. Really, truly alone. Because he had left me. Because they all had left me. My family. I laughed bitterly to myself and through myself backwards on the bed. They left me. They always left me.

I slowly went through the motions. I put on leggings and one of my father's shirts. (I refused to wear one of those that I had pilfered from Killian or one of the other boys.) I pulled on the thickest socks I owned but didn't put on shoes. (Why would I? It wasn't like I was planning on leaving the castle anytime soon.) throwing my hair messily atop my head, I tied it into a bun and grabbed a book from my shelves. I sat in my chair, staring at the words on the page, but unable to read them. My family. Left me. Again. Always. They always left. Baelfire. My darling Henry. And now Killian and Demetri and all the rest of my new family. What was wrong with me? What was so wrong with me? I began to weep and when I couldn't take being there another moment I closed my eyes and waved my hand, teleporting. Cold, hard stone sat beneath my crossed legged pose and I cracked on eye open, checking where I was.

"What the hell are you doing here, dearie?" The high pitched voice called out from the darkness. I waved my hand, lighting the torches.

"I couldn't be around people who were nice to me anymore." I admitted. "I thought maybe being near someone who hated me as much as I did might help." He didn't question it, in fact, he seemed to understand perfectly.

"That's why I went to your parents, you know. After Belle, and then Bae, I couldn't be alone with those who catered to my every whim simply because they feared me or wished my good fortune. I needed…" He trailed off, seemingly unsure how to articulate his emotions.

"You needed to be with people who hated you as much as you hated you because at least that you could understand."

"I suppose."

"Like I said, it was the same with me." I paused considering. "And I guess I wanted to be with someone who understood my loss."

"The loss of a son." He commented lightly.

"The loss of everything."

"You have lost even more since we last spoke."

"Imagine you had lost your son first. Milah, then your son. You would be… despondent. Uncontrollable. Or perhaps you would have reacted like me, simply pretending none of it had ever existed, and living in a dream just to avoid the nightmare that was reality. But then, then you met Belle and she brought a small pinprick of light back into your life, she made all that pain worth it because in pain and anger and love and joy, as they mix together to form the new person you become you would find some small beauty. But then, Belle would leave you along with all the family she had brought to your side, your new brothers, so to speak. They would all leave you. Voluntarily. Tell me how much it hurts happening in that order?"

"It hurts in any order." He responded. "I don't suppose you could pass me a pillow, dearie? Sleeping on that cot made of rocks isn't good for an old man's back." I waved my hand again and pointed into his cell, his bed turned into a replica of the my own.

"It's pink."

"Yes. You can hate that as much as I do too. Then we can both be in the exact same misery down to our bedrooms."

"You can do magic and I cannot."

"Magic brings you comfort. Without my magic I wouldn't have lost Bae, nor our son. It brings me the pain you have without it."

"Why do you keep using it then?"

"I deserve the pain."

"Do the Charmings know you are here with me, dearie."

"No."

"Where do they think you are?"

"In my room if they haven't already figured out otherwise."

"And when they find out?"

"Am I supposed to be afraid of a bit of scolding from my mum or dad? Your dad tried to scold me, didn't do much, and I'm sure he's much scarier than my parents."

"Ah yes. Neverland. You were there."

"Do you want me to tell you about it?" I offered. He shrugged but nodded.

"A few minutes away from the boredom." He decided. "Why not?"

"I thought he was going to kill me, Pan's shadow. When it came to my window I thought it was there to take me to Bae, to take me to my son."

"And so you took his hand willingly."

"Wouldn't you have?"

"Emma, I think we've widely established that you and I are far more similar than anyone would ever guess."


	27. New Best Friend Sort of

**Sorry it has been so long. I'm awful. I know. Thanks for sticking with me:) I promise - I'm gonna wrap this thing up as soon as I can! Then you'll have a full and complete story to read! (yay!) **

**Thank you so much to all my reviewers - I really appreciate the feedback and the opportunity to learn from your comments. You guys are the best!Here's an extra long chapter to say thanks and sorry all wrapped into one!  
**

**xoxo - Elsa**

* * *

** Prince Charming  
**

"Where is she?" I snarled at her guard. He cowered down before me and I heard Snow make a small, disapproving noise but I didn't care. My daughter was gone. I had placed guards at her door and windows night and day and she what? Just disappears? Like magic... oh. Shit.

"I swear, sir! She didn't leave here nor out the window!"

"She has more powerful magic than you'd think, Charming." Regina's voice broke in. "A transport spell, I can sense it here. She's gone and it isn't your guards' fault."

"Then I should place a guard with her at all times. No matter where she is or what she's doing someone will watch her."

"Overkill much dad?" Her voice echoed in my ear and I thanked the heavens that she was home safely. Then I turned on her ready to yell until I was blue in the face.

"Where have you been, young lady?!"

"Out."

"Out, _where_? You get sick, faint straight away and then just disappear? You could have been hurt! You could have-"

"Been just fine? Yeah. I am. Thanks for the concern but dad, I can take care of myself."

"You're barely 18 Emma, that doesn't make you an adult." She rolled her eyes and took a deep breath.

"All due respect, dad, but you have no idea what I've been through, you have no idea who I am, and clearly, you have no idea how old I am!" I quickly recounted in my head. I hadn't said the wrong age, had I? No. No it was definitely 18.

"Emma," Snow interjected, sounding incredibly worried. "What do you mean? You're 18."

"It's been 18 years for you people. Not me."

"Emma I don't understand."

"No. You don't. So maybe stay out of it! Ugh. Dad. I'm an adult. You can't jusr place people guarding me every second of every day."

"Emma Regina I can and I will!"

"You wanna know where I was, dad? I was with Rumpelstiltskin. The _Dark One_. And now I'm talking to my own father. How is it, dad, that right now, I would rather be back there with him hurling insults at me than here with you?"

"You went to see the _Dark One_?! Emma! You can't just do that! He's-"

"Not going to hurt me." She responded dryly.

"I think you are somehow misunderstanding the very simple words: THE. DARK. ONE."

"We understand each other."

"That makes no sense, Emma."

"Well we do. And it's nice to be with someone who understands." She waved her hand and before I could say a word, she was gone. I spun around to look at my wife and the Queen.

"Tell me one of you understands that better than I do." Snow shook her head vehemently but Regina just sighed.

"Unfortunately, yes." Her hand was already waving by the time I realized she was about to teleport us.

* * *

**Emma**

"Back so soon, princess?" he asked, cackling.

"You were right. They're annoying."

"Of course they are! What with their bubbling little, happily ever afters and all that stuff and nonsense."

"Happily Ever After is overrated." I grumbled, magicing up an arm chair and plopping myself in it.

"Indeed. However, not being bored, is not." I sighed.

"What do you want?"

"Tell me another story."

"True or made up?"

"Make me guess." He said gleefully. I took a deep breath and told him the tale of the fairies in Marmota, how they hid me from the witch's magic and stole me away from her in the middle of the night. I told him of how they showed me how to harness my own magic, not through spells or potions which required specific objects or sacrifices to be made, but simply through my own emotions. I told him how Tellaro came looking for me, even then, just to finish the job and how I could hide in plain sight, because he hadn't the slightest idea what I looked like or what my magic felt like, he had only ever known how to search for Bae. I told him how I had defeated Tellaro, killed him, and cursed his very bones. Well, his remains, anyway, what he was made of I hadn't really stopped to see. Rumple stopped me there.

"You _killed_ the great Tellaro?"

"When you call him the great Tellaro, he sounds like a hack magician, you know?"

"It's impossible. You couldn't have killed him. You made this story up." I smiled without an ounce of joy.

"You forget the power anger can give you."

"All my power comes from anger, princess, I forget nothing of the sort."

"Righteous anger and dark anger are not the same thing." He sat back on his heels, his hands holding the bars of his cell.

"You are telling me that at what, 23? You defeated the darkest being to ever roam the realms?"

"24, technically." He cackled again.

"Oh what cruel fate to have given me a witch as weak as Regina when you could have been my pupil."

It's not the student's fault." I said, jumping quickly to defend my Godmother. "It's her teacher's for showing her subpar magic."

"Are you calling the Dark One subpar, princess?"

"Obviously."

"That's quite the gamble, my dear. If these bars weren't here I'd be tempted to prove otherwise."

"I've defeated Tellaro, avenging your son's death, by the way, and then went and defeated your own father, whom I hear you carry quite a bit of resentment for. Why on Earth would you want to hurt me?" He laughed gleefully.

"You make quite the point, dearie. Indeed, I like you best of all the royals."

"Not hard to do." I muttered. "I'm bored. What do you want to do with your interior design in there?"

"I think a framed key would look splendid." He replied with a laugh.

"I'm not an idiot. And in case you had any ideas about using any of the things I've given you in there to help yourself escape, there enchanted to disappear the moment you use them for anything other than there intended purpose."

"Clever girl." He said. "Why don't we ask them then, what my prison cell lacks in interior design?" He nodded behind me to my parents and Regina.

"Spying on me now."

"Making sure you're okay."

"I'm not okay, dad. I'm never okay. The sooner you come to terms with that, the sooner I'll be able to stand being in your company."

"Emma," my mom began quietly.

"I don't want to talk about it mom." I said simply. "Rumple and I were just distracting ourselves from our joint misery."

"What on Earth have you to be miserable for?" I laughed and I would have been lying to myself if I said it was totally unlike the laughs Rumpelstiltskin let out.

"I killed him. Did you know? I killed Baelfire."

"Emma," Mom was crying now. Did she always cry? She was too good for darkness, it made her far too sad. I should keep the worst of it away from her, I really should.

"It was my fault, and then I had to kill him anyway. I tried to bring his body with, tried so I could bury him, honor him, but the madman was too quick. I had to run, left it behind for Tellaro to devour, just like the rest of them. Then I hid like a coward for years."

"For years? Emma that makes no sense you were never gone for years."

"In another realm. Time moved differently. I stayed there for years and years, hiding, until he came for me."

"And then she killed him." Rumpelstiltskin said, staring straight at Regina."

"Yes," She nodded, clearly understanding the gravitas of that pronouncement. "I heard that bit of the story. Astounding."

"I don't want to be here." I said simply. "I would like to go back to the castle."

"Emma let us-"

"Do whatever you want. I just don't care anymore." I nodded to Rumpelstiltskin and waved my hand toward his cell, adding a fluffy pink armchair.

"I hate it!" he yelled after me. "Thank you!" I smirked. Smartass.

* * *

**Killian**

Her face plagued my dreams just as it did my waking days. I always saw her, heard her laughter, her her voice, telling me stories, teasing me, commenting on any mistake I made gleefully. I saw her in my shirt, standing at the helm, wind sweeping her long hair away from her face, bright with excitement. I saw the sea water whipping through the air, spraying her, making her look even more invigorated, even more like the pirate she was. She deserved better than me, someone young and whole who could make her young and whole again. And as for what I deserved, well I certainly didn't deserve her. But this, I could bring her happiness, I had a purpose now, a quest, and when it was done, perhaps It might be time for the 200 and change year old pirate to start aging again, to just live my life, and let the others go live theirs. It wasn't the same without her. We had been a crew, a damned good crew, some of us together for nearly 2 centuries, before her we had been fine, well off even, but then she came and everything changed and we couldn't just go back to the way things used to be, that was clear. She was one of us, now and without her we were broken, unwhole, and a whole lot of miserable.

Her lad, Henry, he was... he was something else. Baelfire would have been so proud of him. He had been eager to learn to sail, and then surprised us all by being damned good at it. He was an even mix of his parents, the best of them both. He had Emma's fire, Emma's undying belief in things, he had his father's mischievousness and wide eyed hope, he had his father's strong looks, but with one simple addition, he had Emma's eyes, those were without a doubt, his mother's eyes.

He was kind. He saw past the fact that we were pirates. He saw us. He was his mother's son through and through. And I adored him. He had gotten nervous, as we entered the Enchanted Forest (nearly as nervous as I was), he finally squeaked out that he was afraid that Emma wouldn't recognize him. He fiddled with his locket constantly and Demetri knelt on the deck before him, pulling his hands away from the chain and looking into his eyes swore to him that Emma would know him and love him even more than the lad thought possible.

He was right. She did that. Often, in fact. She loved you more than you even knew you could be loved.

.

She loved some of us more than we deserved to be loved.

* * *

The King's hand found my shoulder roughly.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Pirate."

"Returning something to the Princess."

"You're not going near my daughter." He growled.

"Not me, mate." I said irritably. Did he not get that this was hard enough without his making it even worse? "We found something she desperately needs. We're going to pass it off and then we'll be on our way, as promised, or at least I will. What my men do is up to them."

"Fine. You may give me my daughter's possession and be on your way. You needn't confuse her further."

"I may do whatever I damn well please. Know this Shepherd, I left because it was the right thing to do for Emma, not because you bribed and threatened me."

"Yes, yes, the pirate with the heart of gold, I get it. Not that sending you away did much good. At least you kept her away from her _new_ best friend." He spat out bitterly.

"What the hell are you on about, mate?" I asked, instantly concerned if he was. He may misjudge me, but he wanted what was best for Emma and in that our opinions aligned. Anything that concerned him was worth a second look to me.

"She spends nearly all her time with _him._" I stiffened, bitter at his emphasis on the word 'him'. Already she had found someone new. It was understandable, but it tore my heart apart.

"Who is he? I shall find out what I can and do what I must to protect her."

"You misunderstand, not a boyfriend, just..." His mouth curled up into a grimace. "They claim that they understand each others' pain and loss. They're both miserable and they prefer to be miserable together in his stupid cage."

"Cage?" I snorted. "What do you mean? She's found some prisoner to commiserate?"

"Not some prisoner. Hook, it's him. She wakes up in the morning and goes down to the Dark One's cage and the two of them sit there, all day long telling each other horror stories." Well. That was not what I expected.

"She _what_?!" I hissed. "Why the hell don't you stop her?"

"You think I haven't tried? Her magic is far more powerful than even Regina's. Regina tried to sneak a cuff on her, one that would keep her from using her magic, but she just rolled her eyes and magicked it off. Regina doesn't even know how that's possible."

"Don't you dare," I snarled lowly. "_EVER_, try to take her magic away from her."

"And you care so much, why?"

"_He_ tried to steal her magic. Among other things. And he isn't the first one. People are after your daughter's magic for sinister reasons. She's had to learn to defend herself and _you_ shouldn't be one of the people she has to defend herself from. You're supposed to protect her not terrorize her! We had a deal Shepherd!"

"You know what they say about deals." I froze. It was her. Behind me. I couldn't move. I just... couldn't. "People are assholes and they'll probably pull out without telling you, leaving you high and dry." I felt her body slam me from behind as she walked by. "At least that's been my experience."

"I know your mad lass, and I'll be gone again in a hurry and you'll never have to see me again. You can go back to hating me, but there's something you need to see, you won't believe it Swan, it's-"

"Don't! Don't you dare call me that while in the same breath you tell me that you're just planning on leaving again without a word."

"Emma,"

"You will refer to the Princess with her proper title, pirate."

"Fine then! Princess,"

"Ugh, don't call me that, that's weird."

"What do the two of you want from me?!"

"I want to know why you left me two days before we planned on running away together!"

"You planned WHAT?!"

"Charming!" Oh great, Their Majesties the Queens had arrived. (Really thought, what kind of kingdom had two queens, especially when they had both tried to kill the other in the past, it just didn't make sense.)

"Did you hear that, Snow? Our daughter planned to run away with a pirate."

"Would you calm down? I planned to run away with a Shepherd, dear, it's not much better. We could take five minutes to hear them out."

"We don't have 5 minutes. Emma, you need to see-"

"I'll go and see whatever the hell you want if and only if you can explain why you left."

"I had to-"

"In three words or less."

"What?"

"Use three words or less, and give me a reason good enough for you to abandon me."

"It's more complicated then that."

"It's never really more complicated then three words, and if it is, it's only because you are using the other words to explain it to yourself." I stared at her for a long time.

"You deserved better."

"That's stupid. You're stupid."

"That's four words, love."

"Oh shut up! A better reason. And don't say because my father bribed you or threatened you or some nonsense. I know you. You wouldn't have given in for gold or steal."

"Emma-"

"Three words. Why did you go?" I took a deep breath.

"I love you."

"I love you, too you complete twat and yet I didn't go abandoning you for fear that I was too twisted and broken for you!" She reached for her shirt and began unbuttoning.

"Whoa. Em, love, what are you doing?"

"Showing you something."

"Emma, is now really the best-"

"I said shut up!" She pulled the fabric of her tunic over her shoulder, exposing it. Her swan. Or not. Her swan was... different."

"I passed out the other day."

"Gods, are you alright?"

"Listen, you ponce. I passed out. I thought I was just straight laced but it wasn't that. My back had been, in excrutiating pain for one blinding moment. It wasn't until I took a bath the next morning that I saw it. It's changed. It's neck, it's..."

"...a hook." I finished for her. Indeed it was. the neck of her swan was no longer a sleek black line, it stood our from the rest of the silhouette, it was a shining, silver hook. I pulled back my sleeve slowly, cuffing it back to show her the addition upon my wrist as well.

"A swan." I nodded. "Oh." She continued simply. We stared into each others' eyes for a moment, figuring out our next step. "I'm still horribly angry with you." I nodded again.

"I understand. I've a present, Swan."

"I hate presents."

"Not a present then. I'm just returning something you'd lost."

"If it's that damn dress you can keep it."

"I plan on keeping the dress."

"Good." I held out my arm and she took it, allowing me to lead her away from the others. Of course they followed, to watch and attempt to make sense of what had just occurred before their eyes if nothing else.

"It was an accident that we found him." I told her as we approached the ship. "But the moment I did I knew who he was."

"Him? What are you talking about, Killian?" I slowly raised my hand, pointing to where her son waited anxiously on the dock beside my ship, pacing back and forth. She squinted at first, trying to make out his face through the setting sun's rays. Suddenly she froze.

"It's not possible." She whispered. "I watched her kill him."

"A trick. To keep you from fighting." She turned to me.

"I stopped searching for him. I thought him dead and I- God, Killian he must hate me."

"No. He understands. How could he not, _you _explained it."

"You mean-"

"The locket."

"He has it?"

"Indeed." She looked up again.

"What if this is a dream?" She asked in a whisper. "People like me don't get happy endings. This can't be real." I kissed her cheek.

"That boy has been waiting for you for years, Emma. If it is real, are you really going to make him wait a moment longer?" I could almost see her heart lurching forward.

"Henry!" She yelled after several harrowing moments. The lad spun around, his eyes landing on her and lighting up. He didn't waste a second and he sprung forward, sprinting. She too lurched forward holding both arms open, tears streaming down her face. He launched himself into her arms and clung tightly to her, his face buried in her neck.

"Mom!" He sobbed the words.

"Oh God, Henry. I'm so sorry baby, I thought she'd killed you. I thought you were dead, oh God!"

"Momma I missed you." He said quietly, hugging her even tighter to him.

"Emma?" Snow White asked, stepping forward looking greatly concerned. I held my hand out stopping her.

"Give them a minute." I said lowly.

"You don't give the commands pirate," David snarled. "Who is this?" Emma turned back, lifting Henry up into her arms as she stood, her eyes blazing with a fire I had never seen before.

"This is my son."


End file.
